Kokua Market in Moiliili is hoping to beef up sales over the next four weeks with the addition of a new in-store butcher shop to survive a dire financial slump that may force the cooperative to close this fall.

The pioneering health food co-op, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is fighting hard to insure that this won’t be its last year, said Margaret Croxford, who took over as interim general manager in July.

The new partnership with Makana Provisions meat company will feature grass-fed local beef, pork and Molokai venison at a bit of a lower price than grocery chain stores, and provide prepared foods and hot lunch options, including a Saturday barbecue. Croxford hopes it will draw a wider variety of customers, including the online wholesaler’s own followers.

“I’m excited, because it’s so different,” she said of having a butcher installed at a health food store. Kokua’s main competitor, Down to Earth, does not carry animal proteins or wine as Kokua does.

Why a co-op?

Clifford Chang, president of the cooperative’s board of directors, said the usual summer sales slump that lasts through August could exhaust the co-op’s savings and reserve funds, and the owners will have to decide by September whether to close.

Chang has been a member-owner since the birth of the pioneering health food store in 1971, fully committed to the co-op’s mission of providing the community with local, organic and healthy food. The co-op’s 4,000-plus owners are community-driven versus profit-driven, and that’s what distinguishes it from corporately owned supermarkets, he said.

“Why after all these years am I still a cooperative member? Why is that so important to me? There’s a real sense of family. … there’s that sense when you walk into the store, this exists because like-minded people in the community have come together as an alternative way of doing business. It’s not strict capitalism; it’s people investing in a store that provides the products they want in a community forum where they have input,” he said.

“This is a place that reflects my values, it’s my community, and it’s run in a manner that reflects who I am,” said Chang, a retired executive director of Pacific Islands Primary Care Association.

Croxford, the market’s bookkeeper for four years, said she is devoted to supporting local farmers, including her son who works in the agriculture industry. She points out with pride that the co-op was one of the first stores to carry products from local farms.

That sentiment was reiterated by Laurie Carlson, one of Kokua’s co-founders, who said if the co-op is forced to close, it would have the most impact on small farmers, local producers and others just starting out. These food producers rely on the store as an established retail outlet — “For backyard farmers, we are their first option,” she said.

Kokua does not require their small-scale suppliers to have ­enormous liability insurance, or to supply the market with the volume of products expected by large-scale commercial retailers, she said.

Having a vast variety of growers gives Kokua the advantage of offering a unique selection of products, which are hard to find outside of Chinatown or anywhere else, Carlson said; for example: Sri Lanka king coconuts, soursop, dragon fruit, mangosteen, three or four kinds of bananas and fresh organic poi.

Kehau Padilla, a co-founder of the Waimanalo Market, is saddened her store was forced to close in December because it could not survive the COVID-19 shutdowns. It started out as a cooperative in 2013 but switched to nonprofit status in 2016.

“I will always see good things in cooperative ownership because it means you have a stake in this enterprise; it’s good for people who want to get together and share the cost of running a business,” said Padilla.

As both a co-op and nonprofit, Waimanalo’s owners prided themselves on providing a venue for small farmers, backyard farmers or anybody to sell their produce, even if was five or six papayas at a time, she said.

If Kokua Market were to close, Padilla believes farmers can turn to numerous other venues to get their produce to market, with the availability of farmers markets, roadside stands, online sales and pop-up events.

Moving forward

Kokua’s members were notified of its financial crisis in a July newsletter from Chang: “Unfortunately, Kokua’s financial situation continues to be very dire, and the possibility of store closure in the coming months is very real. … Simply put, if we can’t increase both our customer numbers and sales-per-customer, we will not survive the summer.”

But the natural food co-op has survived dismal days before, most recently in 2018 when the lights were turned off, the shelves bare and the store was on the brink of shutting down. Some 400 hardcore members made a desperate push to buy more shares and raised the $171,000 to keep the co-op going, and an online GoFundMe campaign contributed, Chang said.

“It’s a miracle we’re still open,” he said.

But COVID-19 “put a kibosh on that,” thwarting many of the 2020 goals that were set. The problem now: “Not enough shoppers are spending enough money to keep us afloat,” he said.

For a while, the co-op was the only game in town when it came to selling organic produce and bulk items, until the opening of Whole Foods, Down to Earth and Costco, he said. It remains the only cooperative on Oahu.

Carlson, who served as the volunteer general manager for two years prior to Croxford, said financial recovery is going to be tough, especially because of Kokua’s enormous rent and ongoing parking problems caused by restaurant customers of the Hale Mahana complex next door, an obstacle also noted by Croxford.

Carlson said COVID-19 put a damper on the market’s bulk business because with so many sanitary precautions in place, the store had to end self-service and pre-bag the products for customers, which increased labor costs. On top of that, worldwide demand for essential goods contributed to constant shipping delays.

Compounding those challenges is the difficulty for an independent store like Kokua to get vendor discounts that come with high-volume orders. It prevents them from being cost-competitive with grocery chain stores, Carlson said.

As a major goal in Kokua’s recovery plan, Croxford has been heavily recruiting more volunteers, who already provide about 40% of the store’s labor and help cut operation costs.

The staff and many of the young volunteers see this moment as a new beginning, she said.

At a recent meeting, “no one was rolling their eyes or looking at their cellphones. I saw people that were genuinely interested in keeping it going and moving forward.

“I’m definitely going to go down fighting,” she said. “I’m older, I don’t want to go down with my job closing. We’re trying new things. The kids are behind me.”

Local meats, plus more

Kokua Market’s new in-store butcher shop, operated by Makana Provisions, will feature hand-cut local grass-fed venison and beef, plus prepared foods. Pork will be available in a few weeks.

The shop will be serviced from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, with hot lunch served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., separate from the market’s regular deli.

From the menu: Hot panini sandwiches include venison Reuben, smoked brisket and pork, and ahi; other options include beef or venison burgers and Makana-­made sausages. Vegetarian items include grilled portobello mushroom, ulu, kalo and uala (sweet potato) burgers.

The meat case will also include charcuterie, sausages, marinated teriyaki meats and smoked meats. Makana’s spices, rubs and sauces are also for sale. Custom cuts and meat blends can be ordered.

Makana owner Ignacio “Iggy” Fleishour said he is a firm believer in strict cleanliness standards and sustainable practices in butchering and ranching. He joined Kokua Market because of its grassroots ties to the community.

His products are also available at Chef Zone and Waialua Fresh.

For online wholesale inquiries, visit makanaprovisions.com, email iggy@makanaprovisions.com or call 838-9315.

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Kokua Market is at 2643 S. King; call 941-1922.