Chatham Marketplace, Dreaming Big
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How do you transmit enthusiasm? How do you convey dreams? Chatham Marketplace is a little co-operative grocery store (~6,000 sq ft) in the little town of Pittsboro, NC (pop. 4,063 as of 2014). In 2005, before the concept of a "food desert" really took root, a few of the locals got together and decided that the area was, in fact, lacking a resource for healthy, locally grown & produced foods and supplements. Support quickly grew and the idea of a co-op, where every member of the community could pitch in and literally own a piece of the business and have a say in its shared existence, was decided upon as the business model that best reflected the philosophy and goals of our many founders... and Chatham Marketplace was born!
Eleven years later, despite increased competition and other typical small business woes, we are still providing fresh, sustainable, and local foods and products to our owners and to the community-at-large (anyone can shop here), and helping to grow our local economy. About ¼ of the goods we sell at the co-op are purchased from local farmers and other local producers!
Things were looking bright in 2016, with sales trending upward and a looming population boom promising to increase our ownership numbers and daily traffic. Then calamity struck, and while we are exploring every avenue that’s available to us, we’ve also decided to reach out for help from you, Dear Reader, whomever and wherever you might be.
In the summer of 2016, four of our refrigeration units (all of our dairy coolers, plus our hot and cold food bars) died nearly simultaneously. The impact was immediate and tremendous, as you might imagine. We managed to secure a loan and replace the units, but the process took nearly five months, and we lost all of the forward momentum and financial security we'd been counting on. We ended 2016 with a significant loss, and sales for the first quarter of 2017 are growing but still below previous years.
Over the years, we have made good progress toward repaying our primary loan, and we’d been looking forward to the nearing time when we might begin to repay our smaller community investment loans and possibly even some owner dividends, but this latest addition to our debt load, paired with sales that have been slow to pick back up since the "Cooler Crash," have left us struggling now to meet simple operational costs, pay our vendors (themselves often struggling in their own right!), and keep the shelves stocked.
We realize we’re no longer the only game in town. There is real competition out there from both traditional and not-so-traditional grocery stores, but our roots here are deep, and we believe with all our hearts that, if we can hold on for a few years as the population begins to accelerate, we can position ourselves to finally turn a corner and define ourselves as a premiere destination for visitors and locals alike. To manage that, however, we need a quick infusion of cash to overcome this very present hurdle.
So here we are, reaching out to the community and to the world-at-large, and asking for help. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Your generous donation will go toward keeping our doors open, getting current with our vendors, replacing our way-past-prime kitchen and refrigeration equipment, and replacing light fixtures with more efficient LEDs. These steps, while perhaps not very glamorous, would represent significant strides toward our future success. We have a great, dedicated, and hard-working team here at Chatham Marketplace, and our owners are the absolute best! We would love to continue the good work we started eleven years ago, so we're swallowing a little bit of pride and asking for a helping hand.
Any amount helps, and every penny is appreciated! Please pitch in and be a part of this effort to help Chatham Marketplace be a dependable source of healthy, local foods for years to come, and a boon to the local economy.
We don't have the wherewithal to set up a bunch of prize levels, but if we pass the $10,000 mark (10% of our goal), all contributors of $100 or more will receive a specially designed t-shirt. We're pretty sure it will be of the awesome variety :-)
Thank you for your consideration!!
The Staff & Board of Chatham Marketplace
480 Hillsboro Street, Suite 320
Pittsboro, NC 27312
www.chathammarketplace.coop
How do you transmit enthusiasm? How do you convey dreams? Chatham Marketplace is a little co-operative grocery store (~6,000 sq ft) in the little town of Pittsboro, NC (pop. 4,063 as of 2014). In 2005, before the concept of a "food desert" really took root, a few of the locals got together and decided that the area was, in fact, lacking a resource for healthy, locally grown & produced foods and supplements. Support quickly grew and the idea of a co-op, where every member of the community could pitch in and literally own a piece of the business and have a say in its shared existence, was decided upon as the business model that best reflected the philosophy and goals of our many founders... and Chatham Marketplace was born!
Eleven years later, despite increased competition and other typical small business woes, we are still providing fresh, sustainable, and local foods and products to our owners and to the community-at-large (anyone can shop here), and helping to grow our local economy. About ¼ of the goods we sell at the co-op are purchased from local farmers and other local producers!
Things were looking bright in 2016, with sales trending upward and a looming population boom promising to increase our ownership numbers and daily traffic. Then calamity struck, and while we are exploring every avenue that’s available to us, we’ve also decided to reach out for help from you, Dear Reader, whomever and wherever you might be.
In the summer of 2016, four of our refrigeration units (all of our dairy coolers, plus our hot and cold food bars) died nearly simultaneously. The impact was immediate and tremendous, as you might imagine. We managed to secure a loan and replace the units, but the process took nearly five months, and we lost all of the forward momentum and financial security we'd been counting on. We ended 2016 with a significant loss, and sales for the first quarter of 2017 are growing but still below previous years.
Over the years, we have made good progress toward repaying our primary loan, and we’d been looking forward to the nearing time when we might begin to repay our smaller community investment loans and possibly even some owner dividends, but this latest addition to our debt load, paired with sales that have been slow to pick back up since the "Cooler Crash," have left us struggling now to meet simple operational costs, pay our vendors (themselves often struggling in their own right!), and keep the shelves stocked.
We realize we’re no longer the only game in town. There is real competition out there from both traditional and not-so-traditional grocery stores, but our roots here are deep, and we believe with all our hearts that, if we can hold on for a few years as the population begins to accelerate, we can position ourselves to finally turn a corner and define ourselves as a premiere destination for visitors and locals alike. To manage that, however, we need a quick infusion of cash to overcome this very present hurdle.
So here we are, reaching out to the community and to the world-at-large, and asking for help. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Your generous donation will go toward keeping our doors open, getting current with our vendors, replacing our way-past-prime kitchen and refrigeration equipment, and replacing light fixtures with more efficient LEDs. These steps, while perhaps not very glamorous, would represent significant strides toward our future success. We have a great, dedicated, and hard-working team here at Chatham Marketplace, and our owners are the absolute best! We would love to continue the good work we started eleven years ago, so we're swallowing a little bit of pride and asking for a helping hand.
Any amount helps, and every penny is appreciated! Please pitch in and be a part of this effort to help Chatham Marketplace be a dependable source of healthy, local foods for years to come, and a boon to the local economy.
We don't have the wherewithal to set up a bunch of prize levels, but if we pass the $10,000 mark (10% of our goal), all contributors of $100 or more will receive a specially designed t-shirt. We're pretty sure it will be of the awesome variety :-)
Thank you for your consideration!!
The Staff & Board of Chatham Marketplace
480 Hillsboro Street, Suite 320
Pittsboro, NC 27312
www.chathammarketplace.coop
Organizer and beneficiary
craig kolman
Organizer
Pittsboro, NC
David Dellea
Beneficiary
