During the Great Depression, 17 neighbors across Hanover and Norwich combined their resources to create a collective buying group. What started in a basement as an informal way to source cases of affordable citrus and maple syrup has, 90 years later, grown into the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society, also known as the Co-op.
Now the Co-op is facing a different kind of economic squeeze. Since March 2020, grocery store prices have risen by approximately 31%, according to data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“It honestly feels like it has been tough since the pandemic,” said Amanda Charland, the Co-op’s CEO. “Right now the price of food has been really tough to keep up with. It’s also really tough for us to continue to try to meet our mission and our values because we are trying to give food at the lowest prices possible while competing with megalithic companies that have these massive supply chains.”
Based in the Upper Valley, the Co-op is the second-oldest and second-largest consumer grocery cooperative in the United States, according to the organization. It has three food stores, two auto service centers and one commissary kitchen.
The organization is driven by four key pillars: employees, community, local and environment. According to Charland, these pillars are the foundation of everything they do.
While many grocery stores in the Upper Valley are part of a regional or national chain, the Co-op is owned by more than 35,000 members who vote on the organization’s governance and values. To become a member, one has to purchase 10 shares of stock, each costing $5. Members get access to the Co-op Rewards program and have the opportunity to get their money back if they ever choose to leave.
“We work to meet the members’ and therefore the community’s needs. As we are owned by the community, there are not a bunch of shareholders who are making a profit off of the store. Everything that we get goes back into the business and the community,” Charland said.
The organization is focused on investing in the Upper Valley. About 75% of the organization’s staff work full-time and are eligible for benefits. The Co-op also partners with over 400 local vendors to source produce from regional farms and businesses.
Keeping up with changing prices
When it comes to competition, Charland said that “a lot of our competitors in the area can get products on the shelf cheaper than we can even buy it from our vendors.”
She is referring to slotting fees, payments vendors can make to retailers to obtain prime shelf space for their products in a highly competitive environment.
“Because of our structure, we don’t do practices like that,” Charland said. The practice of slotting fees can affect what customers see on shelves and the products they have access to in the market. “We are not here for our vendors. We’re here for our customers,” she added.
Another hurdle for the Co-op is the spike in fuel surcharges, a fee charged by freight carriers to account for changing fuel costs. As of Oct. 26, the national average for on-highway diesel reached $6.35 per gallon, a $2.63 increase from a year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Charland noted that growing fuel surcharges can affect their operations tremendously, especially for products where they have already set a price. “When you receive that product the next time, it may have a higher price and it may have got a ton of fuel surcharges to it,” Charland said. “If you don’t get that price changed quickly, you’re selling at a loss.
“But you don’t want to pass a lot of that to the consumer. It’s just hard for everybody, and shoppers are looking for lower and lower prices,” she added.
In these moments of instability, Charland said the network of the cooperative can move into action. “Our staff knows the pressure points that our members feel and what they are asking for. We have relationships with local vendors and farmers where we can work together and come up with ways to help our community.”
In partnership with a local dairy farm, the Co-op has launched an everyday low price milk at $2.99 a gallon. Currently, they are working to create a similar initiative with a local bread company.
However, the rise of fuel prices is only the tip of the iceberg. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in September 2026, the annual inflation rate was 3.7%. As grocery stores operate on thin profit margins, Charland said there is very little room to cover unforeseen expenses.
According to Charland, if a dollar represents the revenue of the Co-op, 70 cents goes toward the cost of the products, 25 cents goes to paying employees, and the last 5 cents goes toward everything else.
With recent increases in the cost of electricity, heating and health insurance, the Co-op is struggling to pay employees fair compensation while simultaneously meeting consumers’ demands for lower prices.
“For those in the service industry, the wages are just not going up as quickly as they need to,” Charland said. “I wish we could do more, but that’s why we try to invest in a lot of benefits for our people.”
The Co-op offers employees health insurance as well as a 401(k) retirement plan with a 3% employer match. In addition, through their auto service centers, employees have access to a program providing zero-interest loans for their auto repairs.
“We have an amazing team that’s working to try to solve these problems, but I think the hardest part of the current economic situation is the rate at which these issues are happening. There are just a lot of different pressures,” Charland said.
A commitment to sustainability
Despite recent challenges, the Co-op remains committed to its values and particularly its impact on the environment. For Charland, sustainability holds a special place in her heart. Before the Co-op she worked across various environmental nonprofits, and when she first joined the organization 15 years ago, she began as the sustainability coordinator.
For the Co-op, food waste management is a priority. Currently, the organization diverts approximately 70% of its waste from landfills through a “pyramid of food management.”
“The first step is, if it can feed people, get it to people,” Charland said. The Co-op redistributes food through partnership organizations including Willing Hands, a regional food recovery organization founded by a former Co-op employee.
If the food is not edible for humans, it is transferred to local pig farms. Food beyond this stage reaches the final level: composting. The Co-op is currently striving to become a zero-waste company with a diversion rate of 90%.
Additionally, the Co-op is working to increase the sustainability of its refrigeration systems. Most traditional grocery stores use refrigerants like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a greenhouse gas with a high global warming potential.
To make matters worse, these systems also have high refrigerant leakage rates. According to Charland, a pound of a refrigerant like this can have a warming impact equivalent to about 3,000 pounds of CO2 going into the atmosphere.
In an effort to be more sustainable, the Co-op is upgrading its infrastructure and reducing its refrigerant leaks. This year they renovated their commissary kitchen, implementing a CO2 refrigeration system which is more climate-friendly than HFC-based systems.
“CO2 refrigerants are one of the best refrigerants you can get. We hope that we can start to roll this technology out in other stores as we need to replace old systems,” Charland said.
A community built around Co-op values
Grocery stores are busy places, with people and food constantly moving in and out their doors. Yet at the Co-op, people come back time and time again because of the organization’s values.
Gayle Giovanna of Strafford has shopped at the Co-op for the past 40 years. “I come back because I’d rather have the money stay here in the local economy than go off to who knows where,” Giovanna said.
Bruce Follett started as a produce department manager 27 years ago and is now the director of operations. He said he takes great pride in working at the Co-op. “The staff care about one another. They care about their community, and they care about their customers,” Follett said.