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Expansion What : Ashland Community Food Store member meetings to discuss expansion When/Where : 12-2 p.m. Thursday, July 8, Ashland Community Food Store; 6-8 p.m. Friday, July 9, Apple Cellar, Garden Room, 2255 Highway 66; 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, July 10, second-floor conference room of 33 N. Central, Medford Organic foods may grow north Popular Ashland store tests waters By DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- Soon Medford residents could have a chance to buy wildflower bee pollen, Bulgarian sheep feta and vegetarian dog biscuits without wasting all that fossil fuel driving to Ashland. The Ashland Community Food Store may open a store in Medford. "Your board of directors is actively considering a new location in Medford to bring organic food and the consumer-owned business model closer to many of our members," reads a letter being sent this week to members. "Our research, and the expanding demand for our services, tell us that the time is right to grow our business to a second store." It can't happen soon enough for Medford resident Eileen Grayland. "Oh my, I wish they would," said the retired bookkeeper as she piled organic potatoes and lettuce into the trunk of her car outside the store. "I have to drive here every time I need my veggies." Ashland Community Food store has been a natural food supplier since 1972. The nonprofit membership organization was in a smaller store downtown from 1978 until 1993, when it moved to the current location at 237 N. First St. Since that move, annual sales have more than doubled from about $3 million to $6.7 million. It has 4,500 members. General Manager Marta Boyett said the Ashland store also will need to be expanded in a few years. But the first consideration is Medford. "The demand is so great that we are beginning to feel the stress of it," said outreach coordinator Annie Hoy. "Recognizing that people are coming from farther and farther away ... we'd like to have people not travel so far and save the environment." But she said before anything happens, the members of the cooperative must have their say. Membership meetings will be held next month for discussion of the potential expansion. "The community has always been behind us for whatever step we have taken so we are checking in again to make sure they will enthusiastically support what we are doing now," Hoy said. Food store employees aren't giving out a lot of details: They are mum on whether a location has been picked out, the possible size of the store, or the timing of the opening. But they are saying the sooner the better. According to written information available at the store, the management and board members are concerned about an organic food store chain moving in on the Medford market. Another successful Ashland grocery store with an organic bent -- Cantwell's -- tried to make the jump to Medford, but closed within a couple of years. Ashland Community Food store employees are well aware of that business blunder. "We're hoping we did enough research to learn from their experience," Hoy said. The store has been researching growth opportunities since 1996, when expansion was put into the long-range plans for the store. Financing for the expansion would come from existing reserves, member loans, financial institution loans and deals from vendors and distributors, according to one flier. "No store will be opened if it will jeopardize the existence of the Ashland store," the flier reads. The store commissioned a consulting firm to research the market and they discovered "Medford has a greater number of potential shopper/members than Ashland." Hoy said the expansion of the organic food market and community-owned food stores is not just a local trend, but a national one. "People are really becoming a lot more aware of what they are putting into their mouths," she noted. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA