By Kenna Eaton, Food Co-op General Manager

The Food Co-op is a great place to shop. It is small and intimate with lots of opportunities for discovering amazing food and people! Because we are a busy store, we have lots of big trucks arriving daily to deliver that great food or fresh local produce. We do also have a pretty sizeable recycling and waste stream coming out our back door—in the same area just where those deliveries are being made. This all happens 7 days a week on a small property with a small parking lot, with no options to expand—at least not as far as we can see.

You can see where this is leading, right? Chaos in the parking lot! Especially in the summer when we get even busier and many shoppers drive RVs or haul in boats and trailers. Some of you have figured out that you can (carefully) park along our north side, where we have a blackberry studded dirt hill. And that kinda works. Not well, admittedly, but necessity compels us to let it happen.

Recently, we repainted the stripes in our parking lot and designated that space ‘“receiving.” What does that mean, and can you still park there? Yes, sort of, with stipulations!  Primarily we need it for those delivery trucks, but truthfully, they are not there 24 hours per day, and if drivers are careful, we can fit up to an extra six cars along that side. However, there are times people park there when we need the space. So, if someone is parked in a way that other vehicles can’t get out or trucks can’t make the turn, we will ask the owners to move their vehicles, as we have always done. However, we will not be policing the area.    

I realize that this is not the answer that some of our customers or staff want to hear, but it is the decision that was made. We simply don’t have the capacity to police the parking lot and run the store. I can say though that before 10 am and after 7 pm, we have plenty of parking—and I urge you try it. 

The good news is that we have many customers who love to shop with us. The bad news is that we do not have enough parking and policing the area is impossible. Please follow the directional signs—it really does help.  Also, please be gracious to those parking creatively, and please don’t yell at each other!

Warmly, Kenna