lisa shaffer-gill wrote:It would be interesting to hear from Nature's Bin about the impact of Leaf on their produce sales. Particularly this year since Leaf has just taken off and they have sold out shares. I would venture to say that a lot of people are eating more giant Zucchini and Boc Choy than they might ordinarily purchase, from anywhere. And, it seems that there would be something of a natural balance. I know that many have purchased plants and seeds from the Bin, and also shopped at the Lakewood Hardware for tools and other gardening supplies that otherwise might not have been purchased.
Lisa
This is not an attack on LEAF, LEAF is filling a much needed service. However, many homeowners budget. I would think that SOME of the members of LEAF shop at The Bin. No matter how small the cut, in this day and age it is big. I believe LEAF is up to 300+ members, that is a lot of buying power.
As I say that, Lakewood needed to offer alternatives to the Farmer's Market that held the city for ransom, and to build a secure network of alternatives. LEAF is well on their way to success with that.
However, it gets a little iffy with like Lakewood Hardware. Glenn has provided a great service to Lakewood with his store. The place is busy, and doing well I would believe. However as I have learned with the start of MAMA many businesses at the end of the month are happy with $100 in profit. When you look at the "community" it gets a little tougher.
Some of us met when there was no bookstore in town. The idea was, we all kick in $5,000, start a bookstore, get it up and running and turn it over to Lakewood Residents to own and run. The second Rose Books opened up, the conversation has been shelved, but not forgotten.
Another version that was thought of was Co-Op Discount Cards(community currency is better) Present your card at Slife Heating and Cooling and get the Co-Op price as we bought 2,000 hours in January at a discount. The problems then grew into, the items needed most in Lakewood, Paint, roofing, wood. Only serious conflict is paint. So where does one store, 2 semis of roofing, and 5 yards of lumber? Who pays? Who pays up front? Less that 2 semis, the savings is not big enough to make a difference.
When I look at these models I always go back to when I owned hotdog carts. Cleveland had never put up with them before, and the restaurant owners went nuts. The compromise, I had to have men's and women's bathrooms with double doors, a full stainless steel kitchen, insurance, a "commissary" in Cleveland, accessible directly from the street. What this insured was that I did not have an unfair advantage in business. We also agreed to no closer than 100' of another place to eat.
I know a writer that I often have coffee with in the morning that is outraged at the Lakewood Observer being a Co-Op newspaper. I think you know him too. You might know him from LEAF as well.
I am not opposed to Co-ops far from it, I have worked hard and supported the efforts of LEAF, and this other project. But to not look at the possible fallout fom the project on the business community is painfully short sited. When we started the Lakewood Observer, we chose not to have conventional classifieds, as that would have been unfair to the Sun and PD.
FWIW
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