Early in the pandemic a trusty band of volunteers took on shopping for our members who were unable to come into the store themselves. This was an awesome effort and much appreciated. So much so that the Co-op undertook developing our own shopping platform which we launched in August 2020 under the banner “Co-op2GO”.

Shopping for others is never easy, but Co-op2GO made a difficult task a tad easier. On the other hand, it took a lot of staff hours to both develop and maintain the platform. And a lot more hours for staff to shop, run the cart through the register, package for pick up, call customers, and then meet them outside for the handoff. All for no charge.

And this was all OK for a while as we needed the curbside option for shoppers who couldn’t come in, specifically during the mask mandate (remember that time?!). But here we are, moving on and dealing with the other related challenges that have arisen in this past year including the rising cost of goods and labor costs. Given all that we have made the difficult decision to close down Co-op2Go at the end of the year.

Are simply taking a break or is this forever decision? Frankly, at this moment we don’t know. We do know we can’t continue to provide this service to our members given the current economics and labor market. Thanks as ever for your understanding.

With appreciation,

Kenna