Our Story
About Us
We were founded as a small buying club in 1936. Today we’re community-owned by 30K+ members, with 3 food stores and 2 auto service centers in the beautiful Upper Valley of NH & VT. We offer 4,000+ products grown or made within a 100-mile radius of our stores. Anyone can shop, member or not!
Rochdale Roots
We trace our roots to Rochdale, England, an industrious, hardscrabble city about 40 miles northwest of Liverpool, nestled in the moors and hill country of the South Pennines. A spirited group of working-class weavers and artisans formed the first successful consumer cooperative in Rochdale in 1844. Operating on the democratic principle of “one member, one vote,” the Rochdale Pioneers organized to control the cost and purity of their food. The idea soon spread around the world, eventually making its way to New England.
Our Early History
In January of 1936, 17 Hanover, New Hampshire, and Norwich, Vermont, residents formed the Hanover Consumer’s Club—bringing the cooperative movement to the Upper Valley.
Initially, members of the fledgling co-op pooled orders for potatoes, oranges, and maple syrup and arranged for discounts of gasoline and fuel oil with local suppliers. A year later, Co-op members incorporated as the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society and opened a small retail store in a basement on Hanover’s Main Street. Annual sales that year reached $11,404.
Within a few years, the Co-op moved to the a new location in Hanover and opened the small town’s first self-service grocery store. Here, the Co-op grew and prospered for 20 years, enjoying steady increases in membership and sales.
Moving On
But as the Co-op grew, its downtown location became cramped, and it was plagued by the perennial Hanover problem: parking. In 1962, the Board of Directors of the 2,000-member Co-op authorized purchase of the Hanover Co-op Food Store’s present site. In 1963, the Co-op moved into its new quarters at 45 South Park Street.
Expansion
Since then the Co-op has continued to flourish. The Hanover Co-op Food Store has been expanded and renovated several times to meet the needs of its growing membership. In 1985, the Co-op purchased the adjacent Park Street Mobil station, now the Co-op Service Center, and in 1995, opened a second Service Center on Lyme Road in Hanover.
By 1996, the Co-op had almost 18,000 members, and sales had grown to over $20 million. Members voted to open a second Co-op Food Store in order to relieve crowding at the popular Hanover store. The Lebanon Co-op Food Store opened in October, 1997. The Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society, Inc.—which had always been known as the Hanover Co-op—became the Co-op Food Stores.
Membership in the Co-op grew by leaps and bounds with the opening of the Lebanon store, and once again, the Hanover store felt the pressure of increased patronage. In May 1999, the Co-op converted the Lyme Road Service Center into a convenience store, keeping the gas pumps and adding a selection of grocery items to what was renamed the Co-op Community Market. In 2008, the 1,000-square-foot facility was replaced by a new energy-efficient building with 3,500 square feet of retail space.
2000 and Beyond
A Commissary Kitchen in Wilder, Vermont, was added in 2000 to meet member demand for prepared foods at all locations. In 2010, the Co-op established a third food store in the community of White River Junction, Vermont. Then in 2017, the Co-op expanded its Vermont footprint even more with a second auto service center in Norwich.
In 2024, the Co-op sadly had to bid farewell to the Lyme Road Market, but we are thankful for all that the brave little store brought to the community and the place of honor it has in our story. Today, the Co-op employs around 400 people, with three food stores, two service centers, and more than 400 local producers, serving more than 33,000 member households. Sales each year are closing in on $100 million, with our 90th birthday right around the corner.
