Amazing Grains Closes

The board of directors of Amazing Grains, a small co-op in Grand Forks, North Dakota, announced the co-op’s imminent dissolution—the notification came just before the co-op’s annual meeting on April 30 2017. Amazing Grains served the Grand Forks community for 44 years. The co-op was among the first Grand Forks businesses to return to downtown after the huge 1997 flood—helped by food co-ops nationally launching a Co-op Disaster Relief Fund.

But the co-op’s decline has been protracted. The board’s message to Amazing Grains owners acknowledged the impact of increased competition, leading to declining sales: “The bottom line is that we have been losing money for several years and see no possible way to turn this around.” Find the full statement at the co-op’s website: https://www.amazinggrains.org/.

Special thanks for years of dedicated work on behalf of the co-op were given to long-time general manager Betsy Perkins, who returned to that position last fall to help stabilize sales and maintain services. The board stated that before dissolution the co-op would be paying in full all co-op vendors, staff, member lenders, and bankers.