The Co-op Food Stores

added 02/06/08

by Don Kreis, Board President

“Accountants without the charisma” is the way demographer Peter Francese describes people who practice his chosen profession. But Francese, director of demographic forecasts for the New England Economic Partnership, gets mighty worked up, in a manner that is memorable if not charismatic, when he starts talking about the future of New Hampshire.

“We’re losing our balance,” the demographer recently warned the Leadership New Hampshire Class of ‘07. What he means is that New Hampshire, and northern New England in general, are in danger of losing their critical mass of young adults and becoming, essentially, a big retirement community.

According to Francese, 30 percent of New Hampshire households fell into the “married with kids” category in 1990, at a time when 35 percent of householders were homeowners age 55 and older. He projects that, if present trends continue, by 2015 only 19 percent of households will fit the “married with kids” label, and the 55-and-over crowd will be 48 percent of householders.

It’s not that Francese, who himself bears a passing resemblance to cartoon senior citizen Mr. Magoo, dislikes elders. His point is that people in the full bloom of young adulthood, and their school-age kids, are the folks who make a place economically viable. He warns communities that favoring age-restricted and/or high-cost housing is a slow form of economic suicide.

On the other hand, there is always the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society.

We alone, of course, cannot reverse a disturbing statewide trend whose solution depends in no small part on building workforce housing and recommitting to quality public education. But the Co-op has a special appeal to young people.

If you want evidence, check out facebook.com, one of those big “social networking” web sites that has become a virtual public square for those raised on the internet. Among other things, registering at facebook.com gives users the opportunity to join various groups, based on common interests. They run the gamut, from devotees of French deconstructivist philosopher Jacques Derrida to those concerned about Britney Spears’ breakup with her husband.

One such facebook.com interest group, with nearly 500 members, is labeled, simply, “The Co-op.” Could that be our Co-op?

Indeed it is. And, as best I can tell, all 486 members (at last count) are either current or recent students of Hanover High School or Dartmouth College (except for me, who recently joined nonetheless). Their sense of connection to and affection for the Co-op is, though whimsically expressed, very real.

It’s not just that the Co-op interest group is found in the “religion and spirituality” section of facebook.com. It’s also the affectionate and mischievous (indeed, possibly scandalous) essay that group founder Evan Gardner, the HHS ’06 alum who now studies at Hunter College in New York, put on the group’s home page. It’s a list of 30 possible reasons a person would know s/he’s a “true Co-op shopper.”

Some of the reprintable examples: You know you are a true Co-op shopper if (1) “the people at the deli counter know your order by heart,” (2) “the people at the checkout know where each member of your family is at all times,” (3) “you routinely grossly abuse your parents’ store credit,” (4) “you personally know some of the people in the ‘History of the Co-op’ mural over the checkout counters,” or (my favorite) (5) “you actually read the Co-op News or go to the Co-op website.”

To my fellow members of the Co-op group on facebook.com: If you’re actually reading this, thank you! More importantly, thanks for the evidence that the Co-op means something to hundreds of people who are many decades from retirement. The long-distance members of the group sometimes lament an item or two they cannot find where they are, but mostly they testify, compellingly, that it is the spirit and feel of the Co-op they love.

Maybe this isn’t a cure for the demographic crisis that Francese declared. But it suggests to the Co-op, and its Board, that we can and should be a compelling vehicle for building community across the generations. My 485 new facebook.com friends now know how to find me with their ideas on how the Co-op can do that.