MILWAUKEE — After 22 years of community service, a neighborhood staple is in danger of shutting down in a matter of weeks and as financial troubles loom, they’re asking for community help staying open.
Riverwest Co-op Grocery & Cafe Treasurer Jill Capicchioni said Friday the business, which focuses on vegan and locally sourced food, has been struggling to bounce back since the pandemic and despite the adjustments they’ve made to recover they’re still falling short.
‘It’s just been very hard,” she said. “We have kind of used up our financial reserve and are still mostly operating at a loss.”
“I know they had been struggling for a while but it always seemed like they would kind of comeback somehow,” long-time customer Britany Gunderson said. “Now this feels like real.”
The reality is Riverwest Co-op is now having to ask for help from the community to stay in business short-term as they work to implement a long-term solution.
Capicchioni believes if they raised the 50 thousand dollars they’re asking for on gofundme they can first secure payroll, and move forward with improvements to make the space more profitable.
“I'm confident that we've got the right staff and dedication from our board and the support of the community that we can make it happen,” she said.
The store has had to deal with the loss of volunteers and customers shifting to online grocery services. The decrease in foot traffic also forced them to reduce hours at the popular café.
To address those issues, Capicchioni said, the co-op began making changes like repricing certain items, that were using and outdated format, following recommendations from a feasibility study,
As a result, she said, they’d already begun to see significant improvements to their finances and were planning to make additional changes based on the study but received an unexpected blow when they lost out on a $150,000 loan they were counting on to stay open.
Of the $50,000 they hope to raise, Capicchioni said $15,000 will be used to run day to day operations and the remainder would be used for things like getting a larger mixer so they can produce more products to sell from their café.
“I would vouch for literally everything they have,” Gunderson said.
Capicchioni also said the co-op is connecting with other lenders and organizations about grants but that process can take months.
“Everything we do here is supporting the community,” Capicchioni said. “Whether it’s the people that work here or how we as a co-op give back to the neighborhood by supporting other local business within the neighborhood."
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