Our Ends are not the End! Thank you to members for weighing in on our revised “Ends Statement”
In January, the TPSS Board of Representatives shared an update to the co-op’s Ends Statement for review and comment. We received more than a dozen responses, including one from a member who said that the title of the email “made my heart skip a beat – what? The Co- op ends??” The member asked, “Please consider using another term that better embodies the aspirations set forward in the email.”
The term “ends statement” can be confusing. What cooperative businesses term as “Ends” are intended to provide a concise picture of what we want the Co-op to be – our desired ‘end state’. The Ends give direction from the Board to the General Manager to develop a business plan and approach that helps achieve this vision.
Co-op boards of representatives periodically review Ends Statements to ensure that the content still aligns with the values we embrace and the positive impact we hope to make in our community.
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TPSS Co-op Ends Statement (revised 2025)
TPSS Co-op maintains an innovative, community-focused, financially sustainable grocery
cooperative so that:
- members and shoppers have access to products that are high-quality, healthy, produced and packaged according to ethical and sustainable practices, and meet a diverse range of needs, budgets and choices.
- local farmers and producers, especially historically underrepresented businesses, and other cooperative enterprises, have expanded access to the grocery marketplace.
- our community, including our employees, experiences a welcoming culture of openness, belonging, and respect.
Comments from members to the draft shared in January helped the board with the final wording, including replacing “minority and women-owned” with “historically underrepresented” in the third bullet. In addition, members expressed appreciation of the co-op, citing attributes that include:
- timely communications with shoppers when issues arise;
- “special and unusual qualities” such as accommodations to serve shoppers during Covid;
- attention to the environment, and,
- being an outlet for producers committed to sustainable practices.
We also received reactions and suggestions that give us further food for thought. These include:
Please support organic with more vigor. One member notes the absence of words such as “organic, regeneratively grown, pasture-raised” in our Ends. The member understands that there may be good reason for the lack of these descriptions, but asks that we better label products so that “shoppers can make the choices that best fit their own personal priorities.” Another member is dismayed to see some food products for sale at the Co-op from corporate players that this member contends make inappropriate use of the label “organic.” This member urges the Co-op to support the mission of the Real Organic Project, which is “trying to return the use of ‘organic’ to its real meaning of working with the land, the soil.”
Promote alcohol alternatives. Given the public discussion on the negative health effects of alcohol consumption, one member hopes that the Co-op might “become the go-to place for non-alcoholic beverages” including alcohol-free beer, wine and mocktails.
Don’t be dull. One member “didn’t find [our] vision very fun or wow!” This member asks “How can we be more active and engaged with one another as members and board and the store itself?”, while “supporting the people who can’t afford [the Co-op]”
Price matters. A member who had not done much shopping at the Co-op in recent years says “my budget is going to send me back to the Giant. However, I think the store looks great.”
-Bob Gibson, TPSS Treasurer