Wedge Refines Mission Statement, Establishes Vision

Have you ever wandered through the Wedge and wondered what the organization's mission and vision statements look like?

We didn't think so, but we'll take that as a compliment.

We hope instead that you have been transfixed by the great selection of natural foods and overwhelmed by our helpful and knowledgeable staff, since that's a lot of what we're really all about. But it's not quite the whole story.

Sure, we're a grocery store, and if you've really paid attention to this past year's newsletters and member communications you might know we've also started a highly successful wholesale food distribution business that's now serving co-ops all over the area.

But retail and wholesale co-ops like the Wedge exist for reasons beyond the products and services they offer. They have a particular business model built around their member-owners, and principles and values designed to guide decisions and operations.

So, without further ado, here's our new Mission Statement:

Our mission as a natural foods co-op is to provide a diverse selection of highest quality, fairly-priced products and a deepening understanding of their importance to our members, employees, and community.

No major surprises there if you've shopped here for a while, except maybe the "deepening understanding of their importance" part which addresses the co-op's broader educational mission. We're not just about selling food, we see our role as helping people understand the implications of the food choices they make on their own health, the health of the local farm and producer economy and even on the well-being of the environment. Then again, if you've had the chance to speak with our staff about any of the products we carry, attend one of our classes or read this publication in the past, you know that, too.

So how do we do all that?

Here's the short list of strategies that also is part of the new mission; it's what everyone who works at the Wedge tries to use as a guide in the decisions they make and the role they play in the lives of our members:

• Win the loyalty of our member-owners through an ongoing commitment to service
• Forge a deepening bond between sustainable local producers and the co-op community
• Build upon the Cooperative Principles and Values

Each one of these strategies could serve as a subject for another article or maybe a book. In fact, if you look around this newly designed issue of the Newsletter, you'll probably find examples of how we are addressing each of those areas today.

As if that wasn't enough, we have also created the Wedge's first Vision Statement. The idea of a vision statement is to paint a picture of where we want the organization to be in the next three to five years. Ours is no exception although some would argue we may be close to being there already.

To be recognized as the most thriving and ground-breaking natural foods retailer in the United States.

Note that we haven't confined our vision to the co-op world. We don't want to limit what we think we can be and how innovative we believe the Wedge can become. We fully expect the for-profit retail food world to be paying attention to what we're doing here in the future.

So there you have it: a new mission and vision for a store many of you recognize as an old friend. While we don't expect you to love the Wedge because of its mission or vision statements — that would be like eating the cookbook and throwing away the meal — we just thought you'd want to know that there are a lot of us, members, staff and the board who are keeping an eye on our little grocery store in south Minneapolis and where it's headed in the future.