April 30. 2025
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
The Bethlehem Co-Op Market was supposed to open in 2024. It didn’t.
It is due to open this year, according to its website. Meanwhile, this organization has received $2.9 million in federal dollars for … for some reason … yet it has not yet sold a single stalk of celery.
The website provides a lengthy list of its values and lots of the usual jargon, but no, I can’t still buy a tomato at this place.
” … we’re moving full steam ahead” the organization said in July 2024. Then in September 2024, the Co-Op said the opening was pushed back due to “funding complexities.” Perhaps the nature of the grants they received came as a surprise to them? If so, why?
The Co-Op was given $2.9 million in federal dollars. It contends it has about 1,600 people who’ve put $300 each into it, and we’ve seen those signs about owning a grocery store in front yards.
Well, with $2.9 million of taxpayer dollars going to this, I consider myself an owner too.
I attended one of the Co-Op’s meetings with the City of Bethlehem a couple years ago, and I got a bad feeling about it. Rather than focus on the nuts and bolts issues, such as planning, they wanted to talk about some wonderful outfit in Seattle. Why, I don’t know.
Planning at the city level involves parking spots and driveways and lot coverage. Not inspirational stories from the West Coast.
Then last June the Co-Op came out with this “news.” It was changing its name to Bethehem Co-Op Market from Bethehem Food Co-Op. Now remember, it hasn’t sold one head of lettuce yet, but it’s already had two names.
Changing names gives the appearance of action, but it’s just that: the appearance. As their press statement said:
“New brand, same co-op you know and love.”
Actually, we don’t know it. It’s not open yet, but according to its website, it’s trying to raise another $1.6 million for the store at 250 E. Broad St.
It’s time for somebody to make sure what is now known as The Bethlehem Co-Op Market is spending public money wisely.
I’ll try to check on board minutes, etc., and here is a list of the Co-Op board members.
If you know one of them, perhaps it’s time to ask, what’s going on?
Maybe it will open tomorrow and make up for lost time. Still, in the opinion of this crazy blogger, they have some explaining to do.
The last “progress update” on their website is from July 2024.
Meanwhile, I have no problem getting groceries at various stores, farms and farmers’ markets.
So, Co-Op, what’s going on? Tomorrow is May 1; the year 2025 is ticking away.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 
When Congresswomen Wild delivered the check at the COOP, it was intended to solidify votes for her election. Politicians handing out money from the taxpayers to boost their brand and election chances is shamefull, but they all do it.
We have Bethlehem Council members who campaigned on their involvement with this organization. In addition, in my opinion, we have council members who voted for city/federal funds to go to the organization while they were COOP members. That seemed inappropriate.
When membership recruiters from the organization asked me to join, they said, “join our group, we are a very active political force in the city”. I never joined.
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I am Domenic Breininger, Board Chair of the Bethlehem Co-op Market. I’d like to provide a summary on the status of our store in an effort to address some of this discourse. If you’d like to stay updated on our progress, I encourage you to sign up for our newsletter, attend our public Board Meetings on the 3rd Monday of every month, or attend one of our weekly hard hat tours of the store. Additionally, please check out the interviews we did with the Morning Call, WFMZ, and The Brown and White where we discuss the challenges and successes we’ve had over the past year+.
Our co-op is currently slated to open its doors this summer. The main drivers of our opening date have been delays in our ability to access our HUD reimbursement grant of $2.9M (took nearly 3 years) and the delivery lead time on large pieces of equipment such as HVAC, kitchen equipment, refrigeration, etc. Supplier delays and cost inflation have haunted us like many businesses but we were happy to learn recently that our last long-lead time item (refrigeration), will be delivered in July. We are waiting until the majority of these large items are delivered before we begin work to build out the store decor (signs, shelving, etc) as we need space to hold the equipment when delivered. Also, we don’t want to damage the decor while the equipment is being installed, which at times requires heavy machinery.
We have now embarked on a fundraising campaign called Sustainable Future to 1) help with some final store costs (training new staff, stocking the entire store with inventory, etc) and 2) help ensure we can sustain during our first year of operations. This is a very common approach for food co-ops nationally as they approach opening their doors. We consult the national co-op community regularly for lessons learned and best practices.
I’m extremely proud of the dedicated and passionate volunteers who, over the years, have helped make the dream of having a food co-op in Bethlehem become just months away from being a reality.
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