May 1, 2025
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
By now, the Bethlehem Co-Op Market was supposed to be full of food, and fun, and fun people doing fun things.
I’m not one of those people, but I stopped by today anyway. The Co-Op was empty. There were some construction cones and a forklift inside, but no shelves, no displays, no nothing.
I’d have taken a picture of it, but there was not much to take a picture of, and the sun glare on the windows was intense. There is a good picture on the Co-Op’s website. It really is that empty.
The market was supposed to open in 2024. That got pushed back to 2025. Today is May 1, so 2025 is one-third gone and there is a long way to go, as was noted yesterday on my blog.
The Co-Op received $2.9 million in federal funds. Its website says it has more than 1,600 members, so at $300 each, that’s about another $500,000, plus whatever else they’ve managed to pick up along the way.
So the Co-Op has taken in perhaps $3.4 million, but “all was quiet” today at the 250 East Broad Street Front. No workers, no activity, no food.
The Co-Op website does present a list of eight values, and its board of directors. That’s good, because somebody should be answering for what is going on. Not just to the paying members, but to the public.
Remember, the Co-Op received $2.9 million in federal money. So despite the signs, we ALL are owners.
Now, if I really wanted to own a grocery store, maybe I’d buy stock in Weis (NYSE:WMK) or Kroger (NYSE:KR) or invest in food distributor Sysco (NYSE:SYY).
The Bethlehem Co-Op Market is not done raising money. It has a plan to raise $1.6 million, and it’s unusual.
Straight from their website:
Now, as part of our final fundraising push, we’re initiating a campaign called Sustainable Future to raise $1.6 million. These funds will allow us to open with the strongest financial foundation and bring our vision of a sustainable, community-driven food system to life.
The funds raised in this campaign will be used to help pay back high interest loans, support bringing in inventory for our shelves, and conduct trainings for the large number of new hires we’ll be making over the next few months.
While we’ll continue to accept donations, hold events, and grow membership as part of this campaign, we’ll also be offering this new option for member-owners to loan money to the co-op, a strategy used successfully by many co-op’s around the country.
***
I’ll look at the details of this lending program later. If it works out, that would bring their total take to at least $5 million. That’s $5 million, and they haven’t sold one can of peas.
Meanwhile, the Bethlehem Co-Op Market should be giving its members and the public and local government an explanation of what is going on with public money.
Public officials who applauded this should be demanding answers too.
I’ll ask the Co-Op. You should too, via this link.
Perhaps the Co-Op will turn out great and all the happy talk will come true.
I woudn’t put money on it, and certainly not millions of public dollars..
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 
I feel like I’ve been seeing those various yard signs for the co-op for at least 10 years now. Call me a non-woke suburbanite, but I’d rather just go to Wegmans. Pretty sure Wegmans is “sustainable” in the sense that they aren’t taking public money, and they will be around for the long-term. The concept of the co-op has a feel-good, “small town folk coming together to accomplish something” aspect to it, I’ll give them that. However, at this point the co-op strikes me as a sacred cow of the Bethlehem elite. Good on you for questioning the current status.
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Their public award is reimbursable. So, they need to raise money to access it. Unfortunate, and I’m not supportive of the Co-Op leadership, but it’s not like they set that money on fire.
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Need money to access money? Sounds like those emails from Africa!
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The co-op has been openly communicating their status so your blog posts seem very odd. Rather than speculating and making accusations, why don’t you actually speak to a board member and get the answers to the questions you are asking? It seems like you prefer to toss grenades than actually know the answer.
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Facts are the best hand grenades.
Jeff Ward
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Where can I find these open communications?
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The co-op has been openly communicating their status so I find your blog posts odd. You are spending time going to the store to take pictures but haven’t actually spoken to a board member about your questions? It seems like you are more interested in making uninformed accusations than actually finding out the answers to your questions.
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1-The Co-Op is not open
2-The Co-Op is at best several months behind schedule
3-The Co-Op is seeking more money.
Facts, not accusations.
Jeff Ward
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Facts, not accusations. I find it “odd” that you would object to facts that are … in fact … on the Co-Op’s website.
I have sent email to the Co-Op and will be sending another with specific questions. Also, I plan to check with the City of Bethlehem on its stewardship of the HUD grant.
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Where is this money being kept. Open doesn’t mean truth.
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Guy looks through the new windows of a brand new multimillion dollar building and wonders where the multimillion dollar grant that funded it went…
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Guy looks through the windows and wonders why a grocery store that was supposed to open in 2022 is vacant … Guy wonders how the organization ran up high-interest debt … above all, guy wonders why a grocery store needs public money to open and wasn’t prepared to meet the terms of the grant … Guy wonders why it needs another $1.6 million to open three years late
Jeff Ward
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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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