Renaissance co-op hires new manager, looks to make improvements

May 13--GREENSBORO -- Mike Sakellaridis was just one day on the job as general manager of Renaissance Community Co-op when a tornado tore through the city's east side.

No employees were at the store, which had closed for the day. The Phillips Avenue shopping center it anchors suffered no direct damage. But the center lost power along with swaths of surrounding neighborhoods.

Despite many streets littered with debris, Sakellaridis managed to get to the store to see what he could move from the refrigerators to the freezer.

"I've never been through a tornado," said Sakellaridis, who came to Greensboro to manage the co-op after managing one for eight years in Point Arena, Calif., about 130 miles north of San Francisco. "I've been through other stuff. We had multiple power outages where we were. Every place has its disasters. California gets fires and earthquakes. Here you get tornadoes and hurricanes."

But his efforts to save the refrigerated stock were in vain. The store didn't have power restored for four days. The co-op filed an insurance claim for a net loss of $27,000.

The loss added to the store's struggles just a year and half into its 10-year lease.

The city spent a decade trying to lure a grocer to that area, which had been without one since 1998, before the community came up with the idea of a co-op.

Officials saw Renaissance Community Co-op, or RCC, as salvation for one of Greensboro's food deserts -- an area lacking access to healthful foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as an area where at least 33 percent of the population lives at least a mile from a supermarket and more than 20 percent live below the poverty level.

The Greensboro-based Fund for Democratic Communities worked with Self-Help, a community development lender based in Durham, and Concerned Citizens for Northeast Greensboro to create and build the store.

In fall 2016, RCC opened.

Sales climbed steadily the first two months after opening, figures released by the co-op's board show. Since then, revenue has stalled.

Sakellaridis knew he was walking into some challenges but he was ready to embrace them.

"I like challenges," he said. "I packed my family of four in a moving truck and drove across the country because I wanted to see this store succeed."

The tornado only added to those challenges.

"Sales haven't returned to pre-tornado levels because there are a lot people who have not returned to the neighborhood," said Roodline Volcy, president of the co-op's board of directors.

And many neighborhood residents still don't know the store exists.

"Now that we are here, it's getting the community aware of it," Sakellaridis said. "People here have been trained for 18 years to shop elsewhere."

On May 3, RCC's board applied for and received $25,000 from Guilford County to help with community partnerships and marketing.

"People are coming in for different reasons. We are trying to find out what those reasons are," Volcy said. "We hired a new general manager. We have a new marketing and outreach coordinator who is holding events in the store and getting more people in the store."

There is a suggestion box for customers and RCC hired a consulting firm that specializes in helping co-ops meet their goals. Volcy said support from Fund for Democratic Communities remains strong.

"The store does serve a purpose in that community," Volcy said. "There's a lot of folks who want it to see it succeed."

Horace Terry, who lives nearby, agrees. He became a member of the co-op to support the store.

"It's important," Terry said. "If others would join, it'd be a lot better."

Some good also came out of the tornado. The shopping center became a hub for a shell-shocked community in the days after the disaster.

"After the tornado, we really got an opportunity to rise to the community and donate food that otherwise would've been thrown away to local churches so they could feed people," said Volcy.

Sakellaridis said people who hadn't realized it before started to recognize the store was there.

Even the loss of food from the power outage worked out for the store.

"We lost products that were not fast sellers," he said. "Having those slots open we can bring in new products that hopefully will be better tuned to the community."

Sakellaridis wants to strike a balance between low-priced products and specialty items.

He said the pricing of many items is competitive to Compare Save, a discount super market a few miles away at Summit and Bessemer avenues. Both RCC and Compare are members of Galaxy, a food vendor that stocks more affordable generic labels.

"I like the buy one, get one free sales," said Deborah Parker, who has been shopping at the co-op since it opened.

Regina Owens lives off English Street and heard about RCC on television and by word of mouth. She shops there about once a month.

Terry shops at RCC at least once a week, sometimes more if his niece and nephews are visiting.

"They love to come," Terry said. "I like the bargains."

Other shoppers like the convenience.

"It's close to the neighborhood and I'm in and out in five or 10 minutes," Barbara Warren said.

Improvements are coming.

Sakellaridis plans to expand the co-op's deli by 200 square feet to include fryers and a rotisserie.

Community events, like grocery store bingo, are planned to help promote the store.

The co-op's board recently held an election.

"The board is transitioning from a startup board to a board that can govern now that we have a full-time manager," Volcy said.

Sakellaridis sees the store as an asset to the rest of the city as well.

"We have a mission to make sure we do a good job serving low-income people. We want to be well represented in serving the African American community," Sakellaridis said. "But it's a grocery store and we want anyone else coming in to feel like it's their store, too."

Morning Newsletter Article Widget6B5869DC547D3D464B640C8906033B3Dsubscribehttp://www.greensboro.com/newsletter/signup/signup-confirmation/http://www.greensboro.com/newsletter/signup/signup-confirmation/

Get today's top stories right in your inbox. Sign up for our daily morning newsletter.

htmlCancelSubscribe

Contact Carl Wilson at 336-373-7145 and follow Short_OrdersNR on Twitter and on Facebook.

___

(c)2018 the News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.)

Visit the News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.) at www.news-record.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.