Valley Market

Your Community Grocery Co-op

Valley Market is a food co-op currently forming in Staunton, VA. It is our vision to open a cooperatively run, retail grocery store-front in the Staunton area.

So What's a Co-op, Anyway?

Co-ops are owned by, and exist solely for the benefit of their members. So what does that mean? Simply, we are are a not-for-profit retail store, whose sole function is to bring grocery and household items to our members, at prices no higher than they need to be. So after an item has been purchased from a producer, a co-op will mark it up to cover employee salaries and benefits, loan repayments, utilities, improvements, etc -- and that's it.

Unlike a typical for-profit grocery operation, we do not have a CEO and other executives with exorbitant salaries, finicky investment firms demanding ever higher profits, a centralized out of state headquarters to support, etc. In fact, if we bring in more money than is needed to cover our costs, we must return it to our members in the form of a patronage refund. They are, after all, our owners and we answer only to them.

When Will the Store Open?

The simple answer is, when we have enough members. Our current goal is to triple our membership by October 1, 2008. This will enable us to move from the planning & feasibility portion of our development, to the implementaion stage, which includes the opening of the store.