Ready for launch
Backers’ goal remains opening physical site in downtown Schenectady
Effort to bring full-service grocery store to a local downtown to take off online./
The energy behind Electric City Food Cooperative is heating up.
That’s because the protracted effort to bring a multimilliondollar, community-owned, fullservice grocery store offering healthy food to the city ’s booming downtown is poised to take off online, according to co-op board member Adine Viscusi.
The arrival of the virtual marketplace, she said, will not deter the group’s efforts to find a permanent location in the future.
“Ultimately our goal is a brick and mortar (store), we never want to get away from that, we want to have that, but during COVID it just does not make sense to open up a retail store, and you see many businesses that are failing, so let’s embrace the technology, circumnavigate the normal distribution channels and go right to the people,” she said, adding member-owners overwhelmingly back the move.
The co-op has 420 memberowners who each have paid a onetime $200 fee that gives them a share in the business and how it’s run. The marketplace will be open to the general public, Viscusi added.
A cooperative is a farm, business or other organization
owned and jointly run by its members, who share the profits or benefits.
Katherine “Kat” Wolfram, who formerly served as board president, is credited with coming up with the co-op idea years ago.
Viscusi recounted that a few months ago she and her board colleagues did a “deep dive” into the various companies that offer software systems to run virtual stores before settling on Oregon-based Local Food Marketplace. That’s the same system the Schenectady Greenmarket — operator of the popular farmers market held outside City Hall during warm weather and inside Proctors when it gets colder — and the Troy Farmers Market use.
Viscusi said the co-op plans to recalibrate its website — https:// www.electriccityfood.coop/ — which in the short term has been run in conjunction with the Schenectady Greenmarket. A start date has not been set, but it should be soon, Viscusi said.
She said all vendors and growers and their inventory will be added to the platform so shoppers know what’s available. Then at the end of the week, the orders will be sent out to the vendors and the co-op will assemble orders before people collect their groceries.
The co-op is renting space from the Schenectady Trading Company, she said, which will serve as the primary curbside pickup point; it’s designed to run in a contactless manner due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think it’s going to be safe and a great way to connect the local economy,” said Viscusi, who is also president of Casa Visco, a family-owned spaghetti sauce business.
Caroline Bardwell, owner of the Schenectady Trading Company and also a co-op memberowner, said her business joining forces with the co-op was natural given her mission and affection for the place.
Her downtown business has a community focus and is “trying to be a onestop for locally sourced groceries and gifts and
souvenirs and all things Schenectady area.”
“I’ve created an environment here in my shop that actually invites people to tell me how much they love Schenectady,” said Bardwell, who describes her business as a “little general store.”
Her merchandise ranges from books penned by local authors to spice products to hand made purses to Union College paraphernalia.
“It makes a lot of sense to also help to introduce this concept to the marketplace both for my customers who maybe don’t know about the food coop and also their customers …” Bardwell said. “I believe ultimately that I can bring some visibility to the co-op for people who aren’t dialed in. ... To me, Electric City Co-op is a passion project that’s taken on legitimacy and now it’s ready.”
Despite the co-op’s ambitious plans, there have been some setbacks along the way.
Viscusi recalled that earlier this year the lack of a physical location ended their chance at being awarded a $1.4 million grant through the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) to help defray the cost of the massive project.
Back then, organizers pegged the price tag on the project at $14.2 million.
Haley Viccaro, Schenectady Greenmarket board chairwoman, explained last week that the group plans by the end of the month to hand over its online marketplace system, which was only being used sparingly by a few vendors, to the co-op.
The transfer deal calls for the co-op to pay the platform a transfer fee and the Greenmarket the cost of the remaining two months on the contract, Viccaro said.
“It’s a good platform, and since they ’ll be taking over ours, it’s already set up, we have some of our people on it using it who know how it works, and will help them in terms of training , so hopefully that allows them to hit the ground running quicker,” Viccaro said. “We’re happy to help the co-op with this, we really hope they ’re successful, and it’s just another access to great local food in Schenectady.”