Description
I recognize that this is not a 'city' issue, but it is a 'community' one. It has to do with a decline of Elm City Market. I find it to be the least reliable store I've seen. Whomever is in charge of ordering and inventory needs to be placed in a more suitable role. And whomever is in charge of ensuring that employees are responsive to customers needs a similar new placement. I've had enough of not finding things in stock and having employees chat with one another as opposed to dealing with customers. The way it is going, the place will be closed in a year or so just because of mismanagement. And that will be a bad thing for the 9th Square and Wooster Square. Can we get an intervention?
13 Comments
BenHV (Registered User)
I would agree that store has taken a turn for the worse under current management. I've heard a lot of mumblings like this recently.
Hopefully it can be saved before we end up with another food desert downtown.
Josh (Registered User)
BenHV (Registered User)
toadmom (Registered User)
toadmom (Registered User)
Res (Guest)
Kam Lasater (Registered User)
Disappointed (Guest)
EMH (Registered User)
David Backeberg (Registered User)
Tambira Armmand, Elm City Market Member Services Manager (Registered User)
Thank you for your feedback. As a young cooperative food market, Elm City Market is still growing and developing. Your comments have provided valuable feedback on how our market can better fulfill its mission of providing a diverse selection of the highest quality of affordable, natural, organic and conventional products.
By being aware of the concerns of our member-owners and shoppers alike, it helps Elm City Market to grow into a stronger sustainable and thriving food coop that meets the needs of the New Haven community.
We will share your comments with our management and staff, and together, we will continue to work on improving our performance, including those opportunities for improvement mentioned here:
- customer service;
- more dependable and consistent shelf stock;
- store cleanliness;
in order to improve your shopping experience and keep you engaged as member-owners and shoppers.
Tambira Armmand, Elm City Market Member Services Manager (Registered User)
This is the response from the Elm City Market Board of Directors:
"We appreciate the constructive comments of those who care about the importance of a community based community owned grocery store. As a start-up, ECM faces many challenges, but we believe that with the commitment of the community, ECM can be a great engine for the revitalization of New Haven and provide much-needed jobs.
Clearly there is room for improvement. We ask all those who care about a vibrant New Haven to help us improve ECM through your support and suggestions. As a cooperative owned by its members, profits stay in the community rather than go to corporate owners out-of-state or overseas.
While the Market has taken longer to reach profitability than we would have liked, we are extremely proud of all that the market has accomplished in its two and a half years of existence:
•ECM has created jobs for 80 employees, 80% of whom are full-time with excellent benefits;
•Through partnerships with community programs, ECM has provided gainful employment and valuable skills to long-term unemployed people and ex-offenders;
•$2.5 million spent at ECM on products and produce from local vendors and growers has resulted in more good jobs in our community;
•ECM’s downtown location means access to healthful foods by bike, public transportation and walking, contributing to a growing vitality in downtown New Haven;
•ECM’s member-owners and staff offer nutritional education classes and other health-oriented workshops;
•For children--The Healthy Food Explorer Club, in which over 500 children participate in learning about good nutrition
Representing the Board of Directors, I can tell you that we are discussing plans for raising additional capital over the next several months as well as taking a close look at how operations can be improved. Please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and we will certainly be helping Doug and the rest of the team at Elm City Market reach the potential we all know it has."
Closed CAO Helper (Registered User)