I have 3 different weather apps on my phone. When you’re running a temporary grocery store out of a tent, there’s rarely a moment of the day you’re not thinking about weather. Is it going to be windy today? Heat advisory? Gentle rain? Downpour? You’re …
From Our GM: People First at the Co-op
TPSS Member-Owners, If you don’t start your morning with half a dozen grocery industry trade emails, it’s possible you missed a story back in April about Amazon removing the Just Walk Out technology from their Whole Foods and Amazon Go grocery stores. In describing the …
From Our GM: Cooperation Among Co-ops
TPSS Member-Owners, Most of you may never set foot in the small Syracuse Cooperative Market in upstate New York. You might not make it out to the new Lovettsville Co-op in western Virginia. You’re probably not in the produce buying club of the Community Grocery …
Annual Report: GM Column
A few years back, a few members of the co-op staff were in a meeting with a large non-profit organization. We were discussing ways to partner together and what their model and philosophy were. This particular non-profit was in the food justice space and worked …
Our GM’s Remarks From the Hunger Cliff: A Virtual Food Insecurity Discussion
02/21/2023 SNAP at TPSS Pre-Pandemic Before the pandemic SNAP sales were a relatively small percentage of TPSS sales. From 2013-2019 they were between 1 and half a percent of overall store sales, and were actually declining year over year as a percent of sales. This …
Our GM’s Remarks From the USDA Grant Press Conference
11/28/2022 The Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-op, or TPSS, is a grocery store owned by the community that shops here. Our cooperative business model reminds us that no one in our community achieves anything by themselves, we all grow and progress together. This GusNIP grant …
Progress is Never Fully Earned
04/22/2021 There’s a point in big budget movies where the good guy and the bad guy shoot their equal and opposite powers towards each other, like fire and ice or two different colored laser beams. The grunt and strain trying to push their power towards …
Board Retreat and Junction Update
1/27/2022 Happy 2022, fellow Co-op members and friends, On January 22, your Co-op Board of Representatives had a very productive annual retreat over zoom. Now in my fifth year on the Co-op Board, this was my fifth Board retreat – and as always, I loved …
Planning Ahead Because of Supply Chain Issues
11/5/21 by Mike Houston 2021 has brought a host of challenges for small businesses like TPSS, but let’s focus on the current and upcoming supply chain issues. According to the October US Census Small Business Survey Pulse Survey, 45% of surveyed businesses said they are …
Fall Meeting Message from Our GM
Co-op Member-Owners, Thank you all for joining us this evening. Tonight is my 7th Semi-annual Member Meeting GM update despite the fact that I think I’ve now worked at the Co-op for 20 years. I’m fairly certain I didn’t have these gray hairs when I …