Small-Business Success Stories 2010

In January 2009, the now 38-year-old Seward Co-op moved into its stylish new store in Minneapolis. Since then, membership has jumped from 4,700 to more than 7,900, employee numbers have climbed from 160 to 190, and revenues grown from $16 million to $21 million. Clearly, it has been a fruitful move. It didn’t necessarily appear that way at first.

“We broke ground on our new store right when the bottom fell out of the economy,” recalls Tom Vogel, the food cooperative’s marketing and member services manager. “As the shovels hit the dirt, we wondered, ‘Is this really a good time to be doing this?’ We never imagined the response would be as good as it’s been.”

The Seward Co-op’s bright-green building rises up like a spring vegetable from a formerly dilapidated brownfield site at the corner of Franklin and 28th Avenues. The 25,600-square-foot building is LEED Gold certified, with 25 percent more green space than zoning requires, windows that let in fresh air, and a roof and grounds that capture at least 90 percent of the stormwater that lands thereon and sends it directly onto the surrounding rain gardens, habitat for hummingbirds and butterflies.

Outside, there are 78 bike parking spots and a bike-repair station to encourage bike commuting. Seward Co-op also provides a hub for Minneapolis’s Nice Ride bike-sharing program and the Hourcar car-sharing organization.

Inside, the deli’s communal seating area is a gathering spot for members (and other visitors) of all ages, who come mostly from the Seward neighborhood, but also from the Longfellow and Powderhorn neighborhoods and from St. Paul (which is just across the Franklin Avenue bridge). Members and nonmembers alike can take classes on a wide range of topics, from brewing coffee and preserving foods to bike commuting and raising chickens in the city.

Vogel says the co-op is committed to measuring its success in ways other than financial—in an effort to “grow on purpose.” In 2006, employees created the Scorecard, which he calls a “self-devised social audit.”

“We look at things such as how we treat our employees, our effect on the environment, how we interact with our customers and our community, and other elements we feel are important to creating a well-rounded business,” Vogel says. One such element is the focus on selling local products; in 2010, about 35 percent of the co-op’s sales came from locally supplied food.