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e-Update
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SuperMarket Update #21--12/08/00
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We are all back safe and sound from Las Vegas. Much to the surprise
of many of you, due to the warnings I received, we got a lot
of work done and pronounced it a very successful meeting.
Within the Intertribal Agriculture
Council's Symposium, we hosted a workshop sharing the SuperMarket
Project with IAC members and even posted a product during the
workshop! A beautiful print by a South Dakota artist, Sandy Swallow,
we have since taken it down until we can get a better photograph.
But it was exciting to do a live presentation and demonstrate
just how easy it can be to post your products to the Web.
Sandy commented to us that
she had been approached by countless e-commerce sites interested
in hosting her pieces and the Rural Coalition's SuperMarket Project
was the first to offer our retail site as a means to share her
story. Furthermore, as a nonprofit, we can offer this as a service,
only asking for 5% of any sale through the site to help us cover
our monthly fees. This apparently is very low compared to other
businesses.
It was very exciting to see
how different our project is from some of them out there. If
anyone has any suggestions as to how we could share that information
with others through the Web page or in our materials, please
email me at rbond@ruralco.org.
It seems very important to get that info out there as a means
to generate more support and sales.
The Design Team members of
the SuperMarket who were able to attend the IAC meeting in Las
Vegas had a lot to suggest as far as our marketing strategy and
we also began brainstorming an offshoot of the retail site. We
are presently calling the idea a "virtual CSA".
The concept would involve
a 12 month membership paid in one transaction. Then, the customer
would receive a box of produce or products from a different coop
each month. We would concentrate on products particular to the
region or culture of the coop that month. Each coop would include
recipes and a history of their cooperative. What a great way
to share the experiences of our farmers and the uniqueness of
each region with others! More on that in 2001.
The Holiday Shopping category
of the Web site still remains the most visited. Please consider
our project in your last minute shopping. Lots of potential stocking
stuffers. Check them out.
http://www.supermarketcoop.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv+Screen=CTG
Y&Store_Code=SMCoop&Category_Code=08
I will be passing the responsibility
of the e-updates to Father Randy of HOME, Chilo Villarreal a
RC board member from Mexico, Gail Lennon of FRWR and Jamil Shariff,
RC staff for the next few weeks, while I am on vacation. If you
have any questions, they can definitely help you out.
As always, email any thoughts
to rbond@ruralco.org and
happy holidays, see you in 2001!
In cooperation,
Rebecca Bond
SuperMarket Project Manager
A project of The Rural Coalition
1012 14th Street NW Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 628-7160 Fax (202) 628-7165
Toll Free 1-866-RURAL-80
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