“One of our mandates is to create good employment for Islanders who are here full-time year round. And for our youth returning in the summer as well. It’s a great place for people who move to the island to start out and get to know the culture of the island by working with us.” — Mary Lavelle

The Cortes Natural Food Co-op is one of the top five or six employers on the island, an attraction for tourists and visitors, and the go-to grocery store for many year-round residents. Active members enjoy several benefits, but membership is not required to shop there — so the store serves many times more people every year than its approximately 360 active members.

Employing 20 people even in the off-season, and with over $2 million in sales each year, the Co-op is a significant island business. But it also makes a conscious effort to be a good neighbour. As General Manager Mary Lavelle put it during our interview, “Staff, board, management — we’re always considering the community. That is one of the factors that we always consider in our decision making: our community. And I think that’s part of what makes us so special.”

On January 13th I interviewed Mary Lavelle along with Amy Robertson, who for several years has been the President of the Board of Directors for the Co-op. The Currents special radio feature based on that interview is scheduled for broadcast in three episodes of approximately 19 minutes each, on January 18-20. Only an outline — and a few excerpts — of this extensive interview are presented here. Readers who want the full story should listen to the podcasts.

Episode 1: How It All Works

I first moved to Cortes in 1998, and there were a group of us that worked with Jude Marentette to bring quality organic food onto the island. And in 2003, the co-op was looking for a location and ended up in the building where they are now — with some assistance from many community members. And I had a shift, one day a week in 2004 — on Thursdays — and I would get paid $8 an hour in retail food. — Amy Robertson

So we have a lot of people who take a lot of responsibility, a very dedicated core group of people who take part in decision makings, who bring all their opinions and their thoughts to the manager. And we meet monthly, to discuss each department and the organization as a whole. –Mary Lavelle

In Episode 1, we present a brief history of the Co-op: from its humble beginnings in 2003 as a buyer’s club, to its formal incorporation in 2004, through its 2014 success in purchasing the parcel it had rented for years from the School District, and up to the present day. Then we talk a bit about what the Co-op is, legally speaking, and how it’s governed. We discuss the org chart, management structure, and the Co-op’s very modest executive compensation factor. We find out what benefits the Co-op offers to its members and to its staff. We discover how the Co-op’s business model diverges from the norms of the corporate world. If you know very little about the Co-op and how it’s organised and run, this episode is a good introduction to a Cortes Island institution.

Episode 2: Challenges

I’ve done the math for myself. When I arrived in 2004, I thought it was a great idea to go off [island] and shop for food and come back. And very quickly I realized I was spending my entire day in ferry lineups, and rushing from shop to shop, and that I would have to make a heck of a lot of savings to pay for that time, if I was even to think about paying my own time at all… or valuing my own time, because there are other things I could be doing. — Mary Lavelle

I think finding good employees, good committed employees that live on the island full-time, has always been a challenge. I know that when we were looking for a new general manager, I was losing sleep at the thought of having applicants from all over Canada apply to Cortes… and then even if they were a great candidate, knowing that it would be be very difficult to find a place for them to live. — Amy Robertson

In Episode 2, we engage with the less rosy side of business life on Cortes: the many challenges of running a small retail grocery store on a small two-ferry island in a tourism economy. We discuss the yearly boom/bust cycle of tourism; the cost of transportation and the vagaries of ferry service; and the chronic housing shortage that makes staff recruitment and retention so difficult.

We revisit the trying “Covid years” — which were very hard on so many small businesses — and find out that the Co-op did surprisingly well during that period. The reason? More islanders shopped locally instead of going to Quadra or Campbell River. This leads us into a discussion of shopping on vs off island, and the trade-offs. We also consider the impact of climate change: in the summer of 2022, a severe heat wave stressed the store’s refrigeration equipment to the breaking point. The resulting failures were costly in every sense, and contributed to a downturn in revenue for that year. We ask how the Co-op can become better prepared for extreme weather events.

Episode 3: Co-op and Community

We make quite an effort to get as much local produce in as we can. And there are, I think three bigger farms that supply us: Big Fir Farm, Linnaea Farm, and Wildflower — Sarah’s farm. And Hazel, our produce buyer, works hard together with the farmers to figure out who’s who’s growing what, and make it equitable, what she will buy from them. Because often, of course, everyone’s lettuce is ready at the same time and so on.

There’s a big effort to get the local produce in. It’s a great seller. Everyone loves it! We’re all just waiting for it to come in. And along with the produce, we also support other island vendors, artists, with consignment. I pulled the numbers on what we paid out to local produce and other vendors, and it’s $150,000 last year — that went from the co-op directly into the hands of Islanders. for their products. — Mary Lavelle

Well, the co-op has the benefit of owning the land that it’s on. Granted we have a mortgage that we’re paying, but we’ve been able to support some local businesses. We’ve got Marnie’s Bookstore, we’ve got the Harbor Authority, and a massage therapist on the property, that are our tenants.

And so we have a small but steady income from those three — and quite a bit of land [unoccupied] to consider how we want to grow. How we can continue to support entrepreneurs and small business owners who would be able to bring their own infrastructure and locate themselves right there in the heart of Manson’s. — Amy Robertson

In the final episode of this series, we consider the Co-op not just as an individual business struggling to remain solvent in face of the challenges of island commerce and tourism, but as an integral part of the wider community and a promoter of micro-enterprise. We talk about the local farmers and gardeners who sell their produce through the Co-op, and the importance of local produce to the store and its customers. Island artisans and craftspeople also sell their work at the store; and Mary reveals that in an average year, the Co-op pays out $150K or so to local artisans and producers.

We consider the Co-op in its role as a commercial landlord, renting to business tenants under separate roofs on its property. We consider a possible long-term vision of the property as a hub for micro-business. Thinking now about the future, I ask Amy and Mary if they have plans for 2023; and we discuss the evolution of the space where (before Covid) the Co-op operated a much-loved cafe. We also learn about the Co-op’s intention to make itself less vulnerable to climate extremes by renovating its ageing, damaged HVAC systems. Amy and Mary agree that the business cannot afford to undertake this major capital project without financial support from the membership, so a capital campaign is planned for this Spring.

We discuss other ways in which members can support the Co-op, including the annual drain of Co-op revenues by bank charges associated with credit card purchases. Mary tells us that the business loses as much as $30,000 per year due to these bank charges.

Our actual cost for credit cards, debit cards, all of those going through the till, is above $30,000 per year. And I know it’s higher this year because we had a meltdown of one of our payment machines in the deli — in the height of summer — and it would no longer take debit cards, so more people were pulling out their credit cards. — Mary Lavelle

So — being a member co-op — I think as members we have a responsibility to ensure the strength of the business — and one of the biggest challenges that we face going into this summer is our refrigeration. And the bottom line is, the Co-op doesn’t have a lot of capital to spend on some of this infrastructure stuff. […]

So we will be doing a capital campaign, and calling on our members to support us, and help with their own food security. So we’re really hoping that our members can toss in some financial support, and do some of the serious upgrades that we really need to get done before the summer. — Amy Robertson

I’d add though: that although we have our challenges, morale is good. Staff are kind and lovely to each other, supportive. It’s a great place to work. So consider joining us! — Mary Lavelle

[Images: from the Cortes Natural Food Co-op website]

Originally broadcast on Jan 18-20, 2023, rebroadcast Feb 28, Mar1, 2, 2023.

[Full disclosure: the author (De Clarke) is a long-serving Co-op Board member. Board members are volunteers.]