Each week we choose a news story, Letter to the Editor, column or editorial that's generated a lot of feedback at PostBulletin.com and reprint some of those comments on this page. This week's topic is Tuesday's news story about the failed merger of the Good Food Store in Rochester with People's Food Co-op of La Crosse, Wis. The proposed merged was supported by 64.9 percent of voters but needed a two-thirds majority for approval. If it had passed, the Good Food Store would have eventually relocated into a larger downtown location in a planned "urban village" development at First Avenue and Sixth Street Southwest.
Below are some of the comments we received.
"How unfortunate! I was anticipating with much excitement the new location and hope for growth of this wonderful resource. I hope the board reconsiders something to make this new location work!"
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"How about the roughly 65 percent of voters start their own, bigger, better Good Food Store?"
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"I'm all for PFC going to the downtown location if they wish to. They have the resources to do it on their own, but no need to take a beloved community resource with a 35-plus-year history to do it."
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"I won't bemoan anyone's tastes — go to trader joes or the organic section of HyVee or Wal-Mart, even. Good for you. But if you care about the integrity of local, member ownership, as GFS members have been for more than three decades, this wasn't the deal for you."
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"From what I have seen, I wouldn't want to be a member of this store or recommend it to everyone for all the petty bickering that is happening. It's time to listen and remain objective and play fair."
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"The current store and business model appears to meet the needs of customers yet remain profitable. The proposed location is larger? The proposed location would have much higher rent? The proposed location would appear more difficult to get to? What indications are a 3-5 times increase in business needed to remain profitable? I don't get it.
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"I have not been a member long enough or paid enough attention to the political back room. I just think the store gets nicer with every upgrade, and it seemed like another positive step to move downtown and into a brand new place. I never found dishing up beans in a grungy bulk room very appealing."
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"The merger would have furthered the cooperative principles by allowing GFS and PFC to combine their purchasing power and strengthen the local economy by lowering prices."
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"This is a real shame – we were looking forward to the advent of a larger, healthy and yet more of a full-service grocery store. We live in Rochester but are members of Peoples Food Co-op and usually make our monthly trip to La Crosse. We were members of GFS, but felt there was little benefit from the membership. GFS is more of a niche store with a rather limited appeal. ... I hope the PFC does open a Rochester store, then the 211 people that voted against the merger can have their own personal little co-op."
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"The GFS has been a big part of the lives of my family and myself for 25 years, and I am so relieved that this terrible proposition to essentially eliminate the GFS failed. This is because the integrity of member ownership would have taken a serious hit, and that is my primary value.
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I do, however, agree very much that the PFC should go ahead anyway, I think that would be great for you and our community in general and the GFS would have to get creative and find even stronger competitive advantages."
