(Individual License) WEBINAR: A Century of Grocery Retailing & Food Co-operation in North America

For U.S. and Canadian food co-operators, including staff, managers, boards of directors and member-owners.

How can we know who we are and where we are going if we don't know where we have come from?

This couldn’t be a more important time to review the history of grocery retail and food cooperatives. As the political and economic paradigms of today swing in a different direction, history offers us clues for what the future might hold.

Join author and co-op storyteller JON STEINMAN to explore the fascinating, frustrating and inspirational history of modern grocery retailing and the waves of food co-op formation that emerged alongside.

Areas of focus:

* The rise of early 20th century grocery giants.
* Resistance to the rise of the chains: competition law/enforcement.
* Emergence of low-price/discount food culture.
* Evolution of retailer dominance over suppliers.
* History of the co-operative model.
* Why co-ops emerged as a response to overly-liberalized markets.
* Waves of food co-op development.
* African American co-ops.
* The rise and fall of 1970s-era food co-op distributors.
* Food co-ops ‘grow up’ in the 1980s.
* Erosion of competition enforcement and effects of Reagan-era economics on grocery retail, market concentration, and on the food system.
* Food co-ops today.
* The future of food co-ops.

What will participants walk away with?

* Strong sense of purpose as an employee, board director, or member-owner of your food co-op.
* Solidarity with previous generations of co-op developers.
* Increased capacity to communicate the role of food co-ops within the context of historic and present-day grocery retail.

JON STEINMAN is the Author of Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants (New Society Publishers) www.grocerystory.coop

TESTIMONIALS: “A wonderfully educational and inspiring webinar.”

DURATION: 80 minutes
DATE RECORDED: January 22, 2025
FEATURED SPEAKERS: Jon Steinman (Grocery Story Press)
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Food co-op directors, managers, staff, member-owners / Advocates for good food and healthy food systems / Community Economic Development
SUPPORTING RESOURCES: Yes