The Gentle Strength Cooperative turned 33 on Valentine's Day, and despite a growing exodus of mom-and-pop shops from Tempe, its general manager says the store will stick around.
For the cooperative's employees and customers, the store "is just home," said Don Downs, general manager.
The store's anniversary celebration, going on now through Feb. 21, will include sale specials, live music, a bicycle giveaway, cooking lessons, an arts and crafts sale, plant giveaways and more, Downs said.
The cooperative began in the basement of a house in Tempe in 1971. Fourteen years later it settled in its current location on the corner of Ash Avenue and University Drive.
Since then, the people who run it have been dedicated to providing Tempe with healthy, organic, natural and sometimes raw foods, Downs said.
"We're not your 99 cents Wonder Bread store," he said.
Like all cooperatives, the store is owned, run and managed by its employees. Their fees to join create equity, Downs said. Five dollars buys a membership and then there are two ways to pay the equity; either $140 up front or eight annual installments of $25. All equity is refundable upon termination of a membership.
The store is also non- profit.
"It feels good to be a part of something that's not out to get your money," said Mariana Zylstra, cooperative employee and recent graduate of ASU.
The employees don't have to wear stuffy uniforms. Instead, they are allowed to wear street clothes.
Everyone from grandmothers to teenagers frequent the cooperative. Customers can find "beef" jerky made from vegetable protein, biodegradable soap and chocolate-flavored organic soymilk.
"The low-key, laidback atmosphere attracts students as much as the healthy eating," Downs said.
One of the few vegetarian cafs in the Tempe area can be found inside the cooperative. It is open Monday through Friday and Sunday for breakfast and lunch. On Saturday, which is Pizza Day, it stays open until 7 p.m.
Gentle Strength Cooperative also offers a 10 percent student discount every Monday. "ASU is important to us," Downs said.
Despite declining sales due to high competition in the health-food market, Downs said that ASU has helped the store's business over the years and will continue.
Chrys Soto, a women's studies senior and cooperative employee, said students would keep shopping there because it offers healthy choices.
"The Memorial Union is full of fast food, which is horrible for you," Soto said. "We are the affordable healthy alternative. Plus, it's just a nice break from hectic campus life."
Reach the reporter at megan.dobransky@asu.edu.
