SOUTH TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) \u2014 The Community Co-op says it has seen a significant increase in customer sales and attendance since announcing its financial struggles.<\/p>\n
WATCH FULL REPORT BELOW:<\/p>\n
Community Co-op sees sales surge after announcing financial struggles<\/p>\n
General Manager Chris Morris said sales and customer traffic have increased since the store made its announcement. <\/p>\n
The co-op says its next step is to determine whether that increased support is enough to sustain the store. A board meeting for members is planned, where leadership will discuss updates.<\/p>\n
For some shoppers, keeping the co-op open is about more than preserving a grocery store.<\/p>\n
Kyra Neal said the co-op gave her a space to share her poetry with the community.<\/p>\n
“That was just like so soul-feeding to have people from the community have a place to gather, in a wholesome shared space. And they have all sorts of events like that, and that would be like I would miss that a lot if the co-op closed. We’d lose more than just a grocery store,” Neal said.<\/p>\n
Neal says community events like Poetry Night are part of what makes the co-op different, giving people a place to connect outside of just shopping.<\/p>\n
For the Pruden family, the co-op provides access to food that fits their plant-based lifestyle without having to travel farther or look elsewhere.<\/p>\n
“My mom typically shops here for getting our like their vegan food, and there’s not a lot of vegan restaurants around Tallahassee, so we cook at home. And plus, I do some baking for them with with all the vegan stuff I get from the Community Co-op. So that means that if it closes, I won’t really have a direct place I can go to that’s so local,” Rebecca Pruden said.<\/p>\n
Jack Gugino says the store has a unique selection and that he family plans to keep coming back as often as possible.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, we’re going to shop here pretty much every time, as much as we can. You know, hopefully we can save this place,” Jack Gugino said.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n
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