NORWAY – Fare Share Market keeps marking record sales, which is buoying spirits of the staff and giving manager Claire Gelinas a springboard for more ideas she’d like to introduce at the utopian grocery store.
Gelinas took over management of the natural food cooperative on Main Street a year ago.
“I had never done anything like this before in my life,” she said recently, widening her eyes. But she had experience in social issues, which she carried with her to her new job.
When she arrived, she institutionalized a socialist ethic – everyone at the store, including her, would be paid the same rate, $9 an hour. This bumped up the wages of some of the workers while cutting into her potential earnings.
Never having managed a store before, she had to educate herself on running a business, and in an interview Wednesday, she spoke in cool business school terms.
“There was lack of inventory, problems with cash flow,” she said, adding later, “and I needed to support the staff better. The staff was taking the brunt of any difficulties we had,” like uneven management and financial strain, resulting from the move from Tannery Street to a larger location downtown.
She set about organizing regular staff meetings and gave the employees freedom to grow at the store, to gain direct experience with produce or ordering.
Emily Woodworth, a store employee, took over the vegetable and fruit department, and Gelinas said she’s tripled the sales of produce in the past year.
Bea Asken, who’s been at the store for five years, said more people from the community are coming to the store, not just members. “Our philosophy is we’re not just a store; we want people to have good food, wholesome food.”
Woodworth said, “The staff is much happier than I have ever seen. This carries over to customers who can tell the mood and the atmosphere is more upbeat.”
And Gelinas made a decision to increase inventory, which temporarily worsened cash flow problems. But today, the risk paid off and finances at the grocery store are more stable, although she acknowledged that came partially with the help of supportive members.
In the future, she and the staff have talked about selling a few basic food items at cost, rather than selling them for profit. This would reduce the price on items like apples, carrots, cabbage, rolled oats, and sunflower seeds by about a third.
“People with low incomes can afford them,” she said.
The store also prices items that come with more packaging at a higher rate, like snacks and candy, and keeps the prices lower for food sold in bulk. In this way, prices reflect the environmental and nutritional value of different foods.
Gelinas grew up in Lewiston, and in her 20s worked in mills and factories and waitressed at restaurants, she said. It wasn’t until her late 30s that she got professionally involved in social causes. Before starting at Fare Share, she worked at No Class, a group she helped found that deals with issues of class and classism in Maine. Before that, she worked for an AIDS coalition in Lewiston-Auburn.
The co-op is looking to buy more local produce, even if it’s not organic, in order to support neighboring growers.
“Our focus was never to make money, and never to funnel that money outside of the community,” Gelinas said.
And the focus for Gelinas?
“I’m having a blast, I’m having so much fun,” she said.
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