Chicago Market Newsletter - May 2018
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Our Future Home...and the Next Steps

Hey Chicago Market Fans! GUESS WHAT? We now have a site to build our co-op grocery store!

Chicago Market has entered into a lease with the Chicago Transit Authority to build out the exquisite Gerber Building at the Wilson 'L' Station at Broadway and Wilson. Read all about our fabulous future location and other fun tidbits here.

Speaking of the future...here’s what’s next!

1. Priority #1 is to grow our Chicago Market community of Owners from our current 1,142 to 2,000 by the end of 2018. If you’re ready to become an Owner, join us today! All you current Owners, please share this newsletter with your like-minded friends and associates and encourage them to join you.

2. Also underway are efforts to secure the funds necessary to pay the designers and construction professionals to build our grocery store. Owners have an important role to play in this endeavor – become an Owner and we'll tell you all about Owner Loan Campaign Info Sessions. 

3. When we meet our goals in #1 and #2, we can start to build our big, bright, beautiful Co-op in early 2019.

Check out the infographic that details every step along the way.

Let’s go… Grow. Fund. Build.

Answers to Your Questions

You have questions about our new site, our timeline and more? We've been writing blog posts with answers!

Top 5 Reasons Why CTA’s Wilson El Station is Ideal for Chicago Market and Uptown

Why Become an OWNER of Chicago Market? - a testimonial from Annette Mambuca, Owner #148

Ten Giant Steps to Get to Opening Day of Chicago Market – Your Community Co-op - interview with Dan Miller, head of our Site/Architecture team

If We Fund It, It Will Come: Why Building Our Co-op Will Take a Village - chat with our Funding Director Greg Berlowitz, who explains our funding plan and the Owner Loan Campaign

Ownership Info Sessions

Volunteer Opportunities

Chicago Market Newsletter - June 2018
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Unlocking Gerber

It’s shaping up to be a busy summer for Chicago Market Owners and supporters! Here’s what we’ve accomplished thus far:

• We’ve re-keyed the Gerber Building locks and now have access to the building
• The first portion of our security deposit for Chicago Market's new home, the historical Gerber Building, is paid
• We've hosted three successful Ownership Info Sessions which led to lots of new Chicago Market Owners
• Our Site/Architecture team is busy finalizing and presenting proposals for scope of work to the Chicago Market Board for our preferred architect and store designer 
• Our marketing team is crafting an Owner Growth Implementation Plan to ensure our funding goal of 2,000 Owners by the end of 2018 and it's nearly complete

Calling all candidates for the Chicago Market Board!

Here's a super-easy way to support Chicago Market!

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Owner Loan Campaign

Our Owner Loan Campaign (OLC) will be essential to the growth of our Co-op. Owners will receive more information in the mail come September. Can’t wait until then? Feel free to reach out to Sofia to talk about a loan now.

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Stick it! (A Yard Sign, that is!)

Our data proves that Chicago Market yard signs WORK! Stick one in your dirt and help us attract people to our cooperative market. Help us GROW by putting a newly redesigned Chicago Market Yard Sign in your yard, window, garden plot (personal or community garden) or flower box. Order yours here. 

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Here's the s(coop) from our blog

Why Do We Need Chicago Market When We Already Have Farmers Markets?
Good question (and we get it a lot). Here's a hint: We’re both partners in the same work and are proud to be working together to connect people with their farmers and food. Read more.

If We Fund It, It Will Come: Why Building Our Co-op Will Take A Village
How much money do you think we will need to fund the design, construction, store-build-out, purchase of equipment, shelving and refrigeration units (and the food to stock them), employee training, publicity…and all the rest that goes into owning and operating a 13,239-square-foot grocery store? Go ahead – take a guess. Then read our blog post to see how close you came!

Owner Loans Key to Co-op Success
The Chicago Market Owner Loan Campaign (OLC) is an opportunity for Chicago Market Owners to invest their own hard-earned capital in our mission-driven and cooperatively owned and run grocery store. Participate in values-based investing and live out your commitment to the principles that compelled Chicago Market Owners to join in the first place! Learn more!

Ten Giant Steps to Get to Opening Day of Chicago Market
Chicago Market Board member and Site/Architecture Team Leader Dan Miller (Owner #485) breaks down the ten necessary steps in the design, architecture, construction and getting-operational process of Chicago Market's new home in the historic Gerber Building. Read on to learn how we're bringing the Gerber proposal to life.

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Upcoming events

Ownership Info Session: 12pm on Saturday, July 14 at Uptown Donuts on Wilson Ave - RSVP here

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House parties

Do you like Chicago Market? Do you have friends who might also like Chicago Market? Do you like PARTIES???
Then why not host a house party and invite your like-minded friends to learn more about our Co-op?

Cooperatives are built one Owner at a time. That’s why a great way to spread the word about Chicago Market is to host a house party! We will help make hosting a house party as easy as possible. We provide a kit with instructions and check lists, tips and pointers, brochures and posters for your guests, tote bags for new Owners who join at the party and more. We will arrange for one our leadership team to come and speak to your group and answer any questions your friends might have about our project.

What? You say, all your friends are already Owners? Okay, then what about hosting a party or gathering with folks from your church, mosque or synagogue, or gathering together folks from work, or your gym, or your knitting club, your block club, or your homeowner's association? You get your peeps together, provide a space and some refreshments, and we'll provide a tool kit that gives you everything you need to make your party successful and easy to execute.

Interested? Please contact Board Member, Dana McKinney.

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Volunteer Opportunities

Here's your chance to pitch in and make Chicago Market a reality! Check out the list of our volunteer openings, sign up and we'll help get you started!

• Marketing
• Fundraising
• Volunteer Coordinator
• Volunteer Coordinator Assistants
• Social Media Ambassador - Facebook
• Social Media Ambassador - Twitter
• Social Media Ambassador - Instagram
• Social Media Ambassador - LinkedIn
• Social Media Manager
• Event Planning Leads
• House Party Lead
• Data Entry and Projects
• Website

The “vanilla box” (architecture-speak for an empty shell) that is the outwardly restored Gerber Building now belongs to our current 1,160 Chicago Market Owners.

It’s wildly exciting, right?

Why do we need Chicago Market when we already have farmers markets?

Good question (and we get it a lot) so we thought we would answer it.

Spring asparagus from Mick Klug farm at Green City Market - photo by Malcolm Haar.

“Show me the money!”

Even if you are too young to have seen the film “Jerry Maguire” when it was released in 1996, you’ve likely heard the line above – the movie’s most famous quote.

In the scene, the football-player character Rod Tidwell, played by Cuba Gooding, exhorts his agent, played by Tom Cruise, to get him as big a contract as possible. It’s a classic scene – even if a bit over the top. The backstory, according to director Cameron Crowe, is that the Tidwell character isn’t motivated by greedy impulses, he is simply trying to secure his family’s financial future before his football career ends.

Right about now Chicago Market finds itself in a similar spot, you might say.

Chicago Market is thrilled to welcome newly married Owner #984 Myles Soverel and Elliott Massuda. Learn more about them...

Chicago Market Owners’ dreams for our Co-op store have been clear since the beginning: We want a big, bright, beautiful community-owned grocery store open to all that features local, sustainably farmed, organic produce, meat and dairy products, as well as all the other staples and amenities you’d expect from your market. And because it’s a cooperative, it will be devoted to a triple bottom line: People. Planet. Profit. 

As you can imagine, it won’t come cheap.

How much money do you think we will need to fund the design, construction, store-build-out, purchase of equipment, shelving and refrigeration units (and the food to stock them), employee training, publicity…and all the rest that goes into owning and operating a 13,239-square-foot grocery store? Go ahead – take a guess.

Now that we have the keys to the Gerber Building, it’s all systems GO!

So where, actually, do we “go” from here?

We turned to Chicago Market Board member and Site/Architecture Team leader Dan Miller (Owner #485, pictured with his wife Celeste)

to learn about the necessary steps in the design, architecture, construction and getting-operational process. Conveniently, he broke it down into 10 (not-so-easy-for-us-nonprofessional-types) steps. Let’s take a look.

The Chicago Market community got together on May 12, 2018 at Nick's on Wilson to celebrate our signed lease for the Chicago Transit Authority​'s Gerber Building at Wilson Station!

New people became Owners! Existing Owners left inspired to tell their friends and neighbors the good news and have them also join us as Owners!

And big thanks to Nick's for hosting and to Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine​ for the delicious cheese,
bread and veggie trays.

All photos from Owner Malcolm Haar!

I was one of the early Owners of Chicago Market (#148) — a start-up cooperative grocery that was founded in 2014 — and I have been volunteering with them ever since. 

Frankly, I have yet to have the opportunity to walk into "my" co-op and buy anything. So...

Why did I plunk down $250 and buy a share?  

Annette and Lee Herman at a recent Zero Waste event at Shedd Aquarium.