Membership opportunities: from sampling wine to sharing your voice

Our co-op’s membership is growing more rapidly than ever before. From the start of the year to the time we went to print, 9,000 new members joined; a 19% increase from 66,000 to 75,000. For perspective, under our prior member benefit program we added 5,500 members in total throughout 2019.

Despite concerns from a small group of members about the new program, response to the changes has been positive overall. Building our membership is important because it increases our voice on advocacy and policy at the state and national level. We’ve welcomed your feedback and ensured you were aware of PCC’s stance on issues including Washington state’s review of food safety rules and the Soil Health Initiative.

Your membership also helped aid our food bank partners who struggled when the COVID-19 pandemic hit our region. On your behalf, we donated $150,000 worth of Coro by Salumi salami to our grocery rescue partners.

While we all continue to adjust to changes in our daily lives, we are actively exploring the best ways to serve our members during this pandemic. We welcome your suggestions on how we continue to foster community and connection. Please feel free to contact us at membership@pccmarkets.com.

Following is a snapshot of some of the unique opportunities we were able to provide earlier this year:

• The January Board Meet & Greet at the Green Lake Village store had the highest attendance of any of these board events to date. Members were treated to a tour of the receiving department at the Green Lake Village store and given 90 minutes to share their thoughts and ask questions of the PCC Board of Trustees and management (see related story for full details). Members are encouraged to participate in these sessions to learn more about the co-op and share their point of view with the Board and co-op leadership team.
• The members-only wine tasting at the Redmond PCC in February was so popular, it sold out in one hour. Attendees enjoyed wines exclusive to PCC and cheese pairings.
• We launched our first digital members-only offers. Members were excited to receive coupons for items like free olive oil, avocados and a Theo’s Chocolate bar—and redeemed them at a higher rate than the paper coupons we mail. If you didn’t receive the members-only digital offers, make sure to set up your online member account, update your email address on your profile and select “Member Communications” under subscriptions.

Thank you for joining us in sharing your voice and providing community support.

Heather Snavely is PCC’s vice president of marketing.