Deep Roots

Founded as a co-op in the ‘80s, the Big Carrot is a thriving business that meets the needs of the community

By Joe Tuck

Photography by Babar Khan

Organic and and natural food philosophies were relegated to the counterculture and barely conceived of, much less a business model, in 1983, when nine like-minded people got together and founded The Big Carrot as a worker-owned natural food market. They were inspired by a book by Karen Brandow called No Bosses Here: A manual on working collectively and cooperatively and The Mondragon Experiment, a BBC documentary about local efforts in the Basque region of Spain to improve quality of life by employing co-operative workplace models.

Patrick Conner, HR & PR Coordinator of The Big Carrot, declares the original mandate was, and still is, “to provide a one-stop organic shop, to sell sustainable products, to offer an alternative to products of industrial agriculture and to provide meaningful work for its members and employees.”

From the original nine, The Big Carrot, located at Danforth and Jackman on Toronto’s colourful Danforth strip, now has 70 “worker owners” and an additional 110 part-time employees—people who work for The Big Carrot and are not currently owners.

Adaptable philosophy

Having seen its membership and staff grow 20-fold over the past 28 years, The Big Carrot has had to adapt its business philosophy with this expansion.

“Originally, all members were involved in the decision-making, but as the business grew, this became difficult, time consuming and impractical,” Conner explains. “A number of changes have occurred over the years. Membership does have the final say on the vision, standards and large expenditures of the business.

“However, in order to assist membership with these decisions, there is a board of directors that actively work in the store, as opposed to an advisory type board of directors. In order to maintain membership, or ownership, a member must commit to working at least 33 hours a week at the store.”

When describing the organizational chart and company hierarchy, Conner admits, “It’s clear as mud. That said, it does work.”

The Big Carrot is a community of workers and a business that serves as inspiration to neighbouring enterprises, aspiring entrepreneurs and holistic-type start-ups.

“People are elected to the board from the membership, who meet weekly with the operations manager and his assistants,” Conner says. “During membership meetings, which happen every two weeks, we operate as a democracy. Each member has one vote pertaining to each item of business. Upon adjournment of the meetings, to ensure smooth running of a thriving business, we operate in a more typical, pyramid-shaped hierarchy. At the top of this hierarchy is the operations manager; below him are the floor managers, then the department managers, their assistants, shift supervisors and then workers. This may mean that a member can be a manager or a supervisor or even a worker and still have an equal say in the ‘big picture’ issues facing the company. However, when we are ‘on the floor,’ we report to our immediate superiors.”

No GMO

The Big Carrot is best known for its rigorous standards, particularly its stance on genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food products. This commitment is evidenced by the in-store programs and the company’s involvement as members and supporters of a plethora of organizations and initiatives.

In addition to being a member of the Canadian Organic Trade Association (COTA), the Organic Council of Ontario (OCO) and the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA), The Big Carrot is a founding member of The Non-GMO Project, a non-profit voluntary-based labelling initiative that provides North America’s only third-party verification service for companies demonstrating due diligence in avoiding GMOs in the production of food.

Everything certified

With the introduction of the Canadian Organic Standard in 2009, The Big Carrot became one of the first retailers in Canada to be certified. This standard applies to process, meaning its food processing facilities, including the kitchen/bakery, juice bar, bulk and produce departments, are all certified.

“Our produce department, for instance, carries only certified organic produce, the only exception being some ‘wild’ produce throughout the year… mushrooms, fiddleheads, etc.,” says Conner. “This assures customers that they will never be faced with conventional and organic items side by side. This would lead to customer confusion.”

Upon entering The Big Carrot, a new customer might feel as if they are entering a store that’s part community centre. There are constant meet-ups, tours, group chats and “happenings.” Bulletin boards are covered with postings in support of various neighbourhood initiatives. Newsworthy, info-based and thought-provoking pamphlets are also on display around the store.

To help new customers, Conner says, “The Big Carrot provides free nutritional store tours for our customers where they can have an hour with a qualified nutritionist who can listen to their concerns or problems and then take them through the store and point out food items that can help them improve their health. Many of our first-time customers arrive having recently had a health scare, and when they arrive, yes, they are overwhelmed. These tours can help demystify the experience and make them feel welcome and appreciated.”

Free seminars

The Big Carrot also hosts free Thursday night seminars throughout the year (excluding the summer months) in the seminar room on the second floor. A variety of wellness topics are discussed to help customers and visitors make healthier, informed choices.

Beyond the store, furthering its educational outreach, The Big Carrot offers sessions to schools and groups. It also sponsors the Guelph Organic Conference every January, and the Canadian Organic Growers Toronto Conference every February.

“Right now, our biggest challenge is accommodating our programs and popularity with a lack of space,” says Conner. Initiatives such as Carrot Green Roof might help them overcome this obstacle and be the way of the future. “We are very proud of the Carrot Green Roof, which is becoming a learning hub that demonstrates urban agriculture and green roof gardening to the greater community. Gardens of different sizes with different soils and plants grow up there.”

With so many initiatives in place, it’s easy to see how The Big Carrot became a Toronto institution and how it was able to build on a customer base through simple word-of-mouth and previous accreditations.

“Our greatest strength is in the diversity of our staff. We are small but mighty. We stick to our convictions that a healthy and sustainable world is possible through education, outreach and example,” says Conner.

Carrot Cache

A joint venture agreement was created among the owners of the property, which declared that if the mall ever made a profit, a portion of it would go to Carrot Cache. This was created to provide seed money to start up worker co-ops, organic agriculture enterprises and social justice enterprises.

Over the last eight years, Carrot Cache has granted more than $1 million to more than 165 organizations and individuals. It has a board of directors headed by Mary Lou Morgan, a founding member of the Big Carrot. As well, over the years, The Big Carrot’s internal donations account has donated funds to farmers’ organizations, tsunami relief, local shelters and community groups.

What is Carrot Common?

Carrot Common is the real estate, or the small shopping centre, that houses The Big Carrot, which is the anchor tenant, and owns one third of the mall. The Playter family, who owned what used to be a car dealership on the corner of Danforth and Jackman, loved the business philosophy of The Big Carrot and wanted to sell the property to the original nine partners.

The greater Carrot Common was the brainchild of David Walsh, a local real estate developer and philanthropist. At the time, it was beyond the modest means of the collective to purchase the property, so Walsh encouraged The Big Carrot to solicit funds from customers as Class A shareholders. With that money, and investments from the group members themselves, The Big Carrot was offered one third of the mortgage of the mall.

After that, The Big Carrot became the principal tenant of Carrot Common, and the other suites have since been rented out to like-minded businesses such as Book City, Gifts of the Earth, Inspired Life, as well as numerous practitioners, therapists, counsellors and studios on the second floor.

As the popularity of The Big Carrot grew, the store expanded into other suites in Carrot Common. Over the years, the Wholistic Dispensary (the supplements department) took over a suite across the courtyard, and the Organic Juice Bar was opened when another fellow tenant, the Fresh Pot, closed.

Sweet Ideas

AFTER FINDING HIMSELF UNEXPECTEDLY IN THE GROCERY BUSINESS, DIGS DORFMAN BRINGS THE SWEET POTATO TO SUCCESS AND BEYOND.

BY KAVITA SABHARWAL

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FORD

Digs Dorfman did not have a traditional transition into the grocery business. Though he is a bit of an accidental grocer, he claims that the ability to choose the best produce runs in his blood, as his grandfather owned Sunnybrook Farms, once the largest independent grocery chain in Ontario, prior to his retirement.

After receiving his music degree in Montreal, Dorfman moved back to Toronto and began running a weekend organic market in High Park from 2005 to 2008 during summers, selling fruits, vegetables and baked goods.

While he enjoyed running the market, Dorfman had not considered other options for expanding his small business. That changed when loyal customers requested he open a store in the neighbourhood that could operate year-round. Once that seed was planted in 2008, it took him only eight months to open The Sweet Potato.

COMMUNITY COMES FIRST

It is clear that the Junction, the colourful and historic Toronto neighbourhood where the store is located, was chosen as The Sweet Potato’s home base for the sense of community that exists with its patrons.

Indeed, Dorfman and the entire ‘Yam Fam’ love the neighbourhood and its most common demographic of what Dorfman refers to as ‘parent gangs’ – young families with several children. Also frequenting the store are single professionals that reside in the new condominium developments in the neighbourhood and an elderly population that is increasingly interested in healthful living.

An aspect of the store that encourages repeat visits is the feeling of community, a cornerstone of Dorfman’s business model. He prefers to invest in community eventssuch as the annual Halloween pumpkin carving festival in the Junction together with the neighbourhood Business Improvement Area. The store gives away about 250 pumpkins to children to carve their own Jack-o-Lanterns, withfree food and carnival games also provided to add to the festive spirit. He estimates that last year, the company donated nearly $15,000 to various community events, although the return on that investment is unknown.

“That’s the type of thing we like doing to promote our store. From the start, I always said if we just do this for a few years, people will really see that we love the community and this type of advertising will earn us a reputation you can’t buy with awesome ads,” he says.

Dorfman supplements that community marketing approach with the Potato Post, the store’s newsletter. He also knows that other than social media, word-of-mouth really works to bring in new customers to his store.

“We really work hard to build our reputation and our name in the community and we really like positive word of mouth. People telling their friends and family, that works better than anything,” he says.

CULTIVATING THE BUSINESS

While The Sweet Potato is currently 8,000 square feet, including the 3,500 square foot sales floor and the back area that houses offices and merchandise overflow, the size of the store cannot accommodate its skyrocketing sales. That is why the staff of about 35 full-time employees plans to move to an 18,000 square foot space a few blocks from its current location.

“That would make us the second largest in the city. We’re really excited about that,” says Dorfman. “The community has given us a flood of support since we announced that we even might be thinking about it.”

Moving to a larger spot puts other plans on the back burner, namely starting an E-commerce site and opening more locations.

“Once we have more space and we increase the economy of our scale of buying, that is definitely an option we’ll pursue, though it’s pretty far down the line,” says Dorfman. “I feel like there are some other neighbourhoods in the city and definitely some other places in Ontario where we would fit in well. We are still in the very beginning stages of that stuff. We’ve really poured all of our energy in the past couple of years into building this larger store that we’re hoping to open by the end of the year.”

Although they do some planning, Dorfman believes analytics can only tell you so much. “We don’t forecast more than a few months ahead. We set up some promotional calendars with some of the larger size vendors. I know we’ll be selling cereal and almond milk all year, so that’s the type of thing that we’ll forecast a little bit,” says Dorfman. “It’s really important to have your finger on the pulse of what’s going on, and trends in food can happen so quickly. It’s often seasonal and weather dependent.”

Dorfman cites this past winter as an example, with its ice storm and cold temperatures causing his store to sell root vegetables far later in the season than they usually would. Despite the terrible winter weather, he says that summer is the store’s worst shopping season for two reasons. The first is that Toronto is not a summer destination, with its residents often visiting cottages for periods of time and children staying at summer camps. The second is that the store loses staff most often during the summer because they are often young people who prefer to spend their summers traveling, or they go back to school in the fall.

NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS

The reason Dorfman is able to offer noticeably lower prices on his produce is because he has figured out the balance of giving his customers the low prices they appreciate while paying farmers a fair price for their products.

“One of the advantages that I got out of running the High Park organic market for a couple of years is I met a ton of farmers and developed really good relationships with them,” says Dorfman. “We make sure to never underpay any farmers. At the same time I want to put on deals with produce. That’s really challenging. We’ve managed to do it successfully and the farmers that we’ve worked with are really happy to be working with us.”

In addition, Dorfman’s method of dealing directly with growers at a farmer’s market allows him to carry fresher, more local produce at better prices than chain stores due to their wide-scale buying.

Another relationship that Dorfman takes seriously is the one between him and his employees, who are trained based on their department and participate in information sessions relevant to the business to keep them informed.

Dorfman keeps the Sweet Potato’s position in the marketplace confidential, however he does note that his store’s success compared to others in the same field is caused in part by the friendliness of his sales staff, which keeps customers coming back.

Dorfman himself takes care of the produce buying due to his farmer’s market connections, while three other members of staff take care of the purchasing for the rest of the store.

BUILDING ACHIEVEMENTS

The Sweet Potato team prides itself on the store’s low prices, especially compared to its competitors. “We work very hard to provide the best local and organic food at the cheapest price we possibly can, and that’s definitely a different business model than most of the stores out there,” says Dorfman. “We’ve done some price comparisons with other stores. In particular with the fresh product, we find that we’re consistently 20 to 30 per cent cheaper. That’s dramatic.”

As might be expected for an organic grocery store at this level, Dorfman has very strict rules about the products that can be allowed in-store. He also has his own rules for the produce department: local first, organic second. However, a first choice is always local and organic together. The mix of produce in the store is generally 90 per cent organic, and 10 per cent local conventional produce, although it depends on the season. If a product is not available locally or as an organic import, it will not get past the door.

Among the milestones that Dorfman is proud to have achieved, he counts winning Now Magazine’s Best Organic Grocery Store in the City award at the top of his achievements.

He is also proud to mention the store had to be renovated to add more cash registers about one year ago in order to process customers more quickly.

“That was a bit of a feather in my cap because [when I opened the store] I thought to myself; we’re never going to be so busy that we’ll need more cashiers. We’re so much busier than that,” he says.

Dorfman and his team have truly earned these accolades; putting everything they have into the store to get it to the level it is at now. In its new location, The Sweet Potato will easily be able to accommodate its steadily growing numbers more comfortably while keeping its prices low and its customers happy. And that fact is truly sweet.