Eyewitness to Co-op History
by Dorothy MacEachern, from the September 2003 Newsletter
Ah, it’s been a long, long time—about 20 years—since I left employment with the Co-op, where I’d worked as a coordinator for about two and a half years, back when it was around the corner from where it is now, on Washington Street. I left the area to study nutrition and public health, eventually returned to Spokane, and am still married to an ex-Co-op janitor (Terry Lawhead). We have two teenage children who love to come with us to Moscow and go to the Co-op for snacks and, always, reunions with old friends.

So…my memory is fuzzy that far back. One of my strongest recollections, though, and one of the accomplishments of which I am most proud, is helping to start the Farmer’s Market. It was originally located in the parking lot between the public library and the current Co-op site. At that time, the IGA store was still in business there and objected to the Farmer’s Market because of the impact it would have on their business, even though it was only going to be one morning a week! Store owners did not acknowledge that it would have more to do with facing the competition of excellent produce, and the City Council bravely voted to let the Market go forward. We all helped growers lug boxes of fresh garden produce, and there was even a picture of me in the paper with my bike basket full of veggies and gladiolas. Within the year the Market had expanded to the parking lot behind the former Community Center and the rest is local history. I still wonder why a real Farmer’s Market hasn’t ever succeeded in Spokane, and my family enjoys coming to Moscow on summer Saturdays just to be part of the fun.

Ordering days at the Co-op. Two coordinators arrived early in the morning to check the levels of all of our bulk products. Then, after the morning volunteer arrived, we retired to the Café Libre to write up the order, drink coffee, and eat their wonderful brownies. I also ate lunch there many days, after finding myself quite light-headed in the early afternoon. Although surrounded by great food, I often forgot to eat! In those days, I also had great muscles from lugging and stocking those 50-pound bags of everything.

The coordinators’ log. (Did anybody ever save those things?) They were a great method for communications of all kinds when employees and the many volunteers weren’t working together. This was in the days when people argued for hours and hours about whether or not it was politically correct to carry certain products. Some business-related information even got talked about!

Cookie/ice cream sandwiches were invented by some company during my time at the Co-op and they really kept the customers coming. We kept them in a household refrigerator that would probably be illegal in a retail business today. That was right when everybody wanted to be a night janitor, including my husband, and it was hard to keep those treats in stock.

The Co-op’s ad campaign in the Idahonian (now renamed the Moscow-Pullman Daily News) was a major breakthrough for a business considered outside the mainstream. Then-publisher Jay Shelledy challenged us with the promise that we would not have to pay for a full-page ad if we did not double our business in the following week. We did so, and the success contributed to our continual effort to become an anchor in the community, which, of course, the Co-op is today.

For people who were around way back then, the volcanic eruption of Mt St Helens led to a dramatic few days. People walked the streets with bandanas on. The Co-op was closed, as were most stores for a day or two, after the Sunday explosion. My then-boyfriend was a children’s librarian—he had a key to the library for reading material and I had a key to the Co-op for food supplies. Normally we lived outside of Troy but nobody was supposed to drive their cars because of the ash, so we house-sat a lovely home in town. We felt pretty lucky, sitting at a sunny bay window, watching birds leave tracks in the ash on the ground and wondering what would happen next, but comfortable with a stack of current magazines, lots of books and cookie-ice cream sandwiches.

Who else remembers the bread and gluten-type meat substitutes made by the family from Potlatch? Or the enormously popular and delicious tofu made by a macrobiotic lady named Linda? Or the big decision to purchase the blue awning? (That was David Cook’s initiative, as I recall.) And I’ll never forget the volunteer who wanted to price each individual apple with a magic marker! Most of all, though, I am truly thankful that I had a chance to be part of such a worthy enterprise. Here's to the next 30 years!

Moscow Food Co-op History