Gentle Strength Cooperative closes its doors

It’s the end of a 36-year run for Gentle Strength Cooperative in Tempe. The natural food and products store, which has been governed by voting members since its founding in 1971, closed its doors Wednesday after years of financial difficulties and a recent move to a new location.

Paul Bonanno, a board member and buyer for the store, spent Wednesday talking to customers and tending to a few last details.

“Most people are sad,” he said. “. . . A few people are angry and a few people want to know what happened.”

Bonanno said a series of financial missteps led to the store’s demise, starting with the sale of the co-op’s property at 234 W. University Drive and relocation to 9 E. Southern Ave. The sale helped pay off hundreds of thousand of dollars of debts.

Bonanno said the store’s governing board sold the property for $2.5 million, which was substantially below its market value. The little liquidity left was spent on costly equipment purchases and tenant improvements to the new store, which opened in October. With no remaining capital, Bonanno said the organization had to take out new loans.

“The co-op should have been run as a business,” he said. “...Good intentions are one thing, but business is business.’’

Bonanno said he hopes a private investor will step in so that Gentel Strength can eventually re-open. If not, the store will remain closed.

Jeanne Frieden, one of ten founding members, said she remembers the early days in the 1970s when she and the others opened the first store in downtown Tempe at Fifth Street east of Mill Avenue.

“It’s an end of an era. I feel very sad,” said Frieden, an infection control nurse who lives in Tempe.

Frieden said the first store was a small, rented office in downtown Tempe that contained bulk health foods and a small lunch area.

“We bought organic foods in bulk and sold them,” Frieden said. “Gentle Strength was one of the few health food co-ops that stayed open for such a long time.”

Frieden said many other co-ops that opened during the 1970s have since closed.

Frieden said she thinks competition from chain stores and other health food focused stores forced the closing of “our buying club.”

Beth Hoffmann, a Tempe resident and a former member who joined the co-op about thirty years ago said she’s saddened about news of the closure.

“I am definitely unhappy about it,” she said.

Hoffmann said Gentle Strength was one of only two co-ops in the Valley when it opened.

“It is an institution,” she said. “It was wonderful.”

Hoffmann said she said the trend toward eating more organic foods and the influx of health food chain stores in recent years hurt the business.

Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of the grocery consulting firm Strategic Resource Group, said Gentle Strength was plagued by infighting among its membership and didn’t market itself well.

He said Phoenix, with its growing health-conscious population making it fertile ground for natural food providers, is an ideal market for businesses like Gentle Strength.

“What’s shocking about their failure is they’re in one of the greatest growth markets in the world,” he said.