By Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington’s 1 1/2-year old grocery store cooperative is at risk of being shelved unless its owners come through with at least $300,000 in loans to keep the co-op afloat.

Green Top Grocery’s first year in business at 921 E. Washington St. produced lower-than-expected sales. Green Top Board President Michael Gorman said weekly sales are up 30 percent since the store started implementing its turnaround plan, and the number of co-op owners has risen to 1,893.

However, Gorman said Green Top took on $2.9 million dollars in debt at the start, which was expected. It now needs a cash infusion, which Gorman said will answer whether the Twin-Cities still wants a co-op grocery store.

“The $300,000 figure is really a make it or break in moment,” said Gorman.

“If we don’t raise at least least $300,000, we will be looking at the necessary steps to close our doors, but we don’t think we’ll need to do that. We think we’ll easily be able to raise more than that $300,000 bare minimum,” he said.

Gorman’s confidence is based in part on the two prior owner-loan campaigns in 2015 and 2016 that raised $1.3 million dollars, which he said was a record for co-op grocers.

At a special ownership meeting Monday night, Green Top launched a campaign to raise $400,000 this fall.

“Our average loan on previous campaigns was about $5,000. At $400,000, divided by $5,000, that’s 80 people we need to give loans in order to reach our goal. We think that’s eminently doable,” said Gorman.

Green Top Grocery has 22 employees.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]