For the first time since City Center Market Food Co-op moved to their current location in 2007, the cooperative has declared a patronage dividend, one of the tangible benefits of co-op ownership.
Member-owner purchases totaled 55 percent of Co-op sales in fiscal year 2015-2016 and the Board of Directors voted to return $18,958 to member-owners as patronage dividends. Patronage dividends were issued as store credit, with over 1,800 member-owners receiving a dividend.
Gayle Cupit, City Center Market’s General Manager, is proud of the co-op’s ability to offer this patronage dividend.
“We’ve come a very long way in the past 10 years,” she said, “and we owe our success to our community and to our member-owners. Patronage dividends are a very tangible benefit of cooperative ownership and are part of what sets the cooperative structure apart. Store profit, in the form of those dividends, stays right here in our community and contributes to our own local community’s economic strength.”
Member-owners have the option to return their patronage dividend to the co-op, and unused dividends will be donated to local nonprofit organizations.
City Center Market Food Co-op is a consumer cooperative, with almost 3,200 member-owners, selling healthy foods and other products and helping build a vibrant and sustainable community. Located in downtown Cambridge, City Center Market provides a large selection of local, organic and natural foods and other products, including unusual specialty items, and special ordering capabilities.