Food Front was also the only alternative grocery store that was organized by the United Food and Commercial workers local 555. Social media posts state that bad management, crime and high prices were the issues. The management was top-heavy and toxic. The store had to have a bottle return, which brought in drug addicts, who stole things and security was expensive. Plus you can get the same expensive items at Zupan's on West Burnside.
It's good from a distance but not terribly accurate. I was on the inside until 2015 and know people who were there until ~2018. There were a lot of factors. The reporting by the NW Examiner back in 2014 or 2015 didn't help. There were issues, but there was no digging by the "reporter."
Two disgruntled employees (one in particular) had an agenda to get the GM fired and to force the president of the board to resign. The NW Examiner printed what this person told them and (as far as I can tell) did no research to see what was accurate and did not include that this person had a grudge and a clearly stated agenda.
Is this what killed Food Front? No. Did this help limit the growth and/or relocation options for Food Front that could have possibly saved it? Absolutely.
The NW Examiner also did not report that one of the disgruntled employees had been reported to the police for harassment and was contacted by the Food Front attorney to cease his harassment of the GM. He was harassing board members with some threats and ridiculing a female board member about her clothing and appearance. None of this was included in the Examiner articles.
Here's the short story: It was clear (at least to me, and some others) that the Hillsdale store was not going to make it. The numbers just weren't there. The NW store was doing ok back in 2014, but we knew that New Seasons was going to steal some business. A remodel was done to help make the store more attractive to shoppers. Whether this going the expected ROI is debatable. It's clear from the data the store would have failed sooner without the remodel.
The strategy was to find another, hopefully better location for a 2nd store. When/If the NW started to lose sales, the business could be transitioned to the new store. The long term strategy for the business seemed to disappear when the GM and board president resigned.
Another board president took over in 2017 (maybe 2018) and an excellent strategic view. The rest of the board was only focused on keeping the doors open.
Seemed very evenhanded fair. A lot of history here, and I knew very little of it.
Food Front was also the only alternative grocery store that was organized by the United Food and Commercial workers local 555. Social media posts state that bad management, crime and high prices were the issues. The management was top-heavy and toxic. The store had to have a bottle return, which brought in drug addicts, who stole things and security was expensive. Plus you can get the same expensive items at Zupan's on West Burnside.
Can you summarize the autopsy and assess its accuracy?
It's good from a distance but not terribly accurate. I was on the inside until 2015 and know people who were there until ~2018. There were a lot of factors. The reporting by the NW Examiner back in 2014 or 2015 didn't help. There were issues, but there was no digging by the "reporter."
Two disgruntled employees (one in particular) had an agenda to get the GM fired and to force the president of the board to resign. The NW Examiner printed what this person told them and (as far as I can tell) did no research to see what was accurate and did not include that this person had a grudge and a clearly stated agenda.
Is this what killed Food Front? No. Did this help limit the growth and/or relocation options for Food Front that could have possibly saved it? Absolutely.
The NW Examiner also did not report that one of the disgruntled employees had been reported to the police for harassment and was contacted by the Food Front attorney to cease his harassment of the GM. He was harassing board members with some threats and ridiculing a female board member about her clothing and appearance. None of this was included in the Examiner articles.
Here's the short story: It was clear (at least to me, and some others) that the Hillsdale store was not going to make it. The numbers just weren't there. The NW store was doing ok back in 2014, but we knew that New Seasons was going to steal some business. A remodel was done to help make the store more attractive to shoppers. Whether this going the expected ROI is debatable. It's clear from the data the store would have failed sooner without the remodel.
The strategy was to find another, hopefully better location for a 2nd store. When/If the NW started to lose sales, the business could be transitioned to the new store. The long term strategy for the business seemed to disappear when the GM and board president resigned.
Another board president took over in 2017 (maybe 2018) and an excellent strategic view. The rest of the board was only focused on keeping the doors open.