North Country Co-op (Minneapolis, Minn.)

In February of 1970 West Bank (Minneapolis, Minnesota) resident Diane Lynn Szostek traveled to San Francisco, California to visit David Krall, who was sharing an apartment with fellow West Bankers Susie Shroyer, Keith Ruona, and Eddie Felien. While in San Francisco Diane's friends took her to a small, local bulk foods cooperative store. Later that summer Shroyer returned to the West Bank and soon after had the idea of opening a bulk foods cooperative like the one she experienced in San Francisco. What she needed was space at little or no cost. Szostek and Alvin Odermann volunteered their back porch and basement as a storage and distribution area and the use of their truck to haul goods from suppliers to their home at 616 20th Avenue South, Minneapolis.

The enterprise was dubbed the People's Pantry, using one of the buzz words of the time, and within a few weeks word spread around the neighborhood and it gained popularity. The initial intent was not to operate a food buying club, but rather to maintain a stock and location where people could come and get what they needed at wholesale cost. In addition, the organizers of the pantry wanted to buy "natural food" at prices within their means. They were looking for economic and ideological independence from supermarket chain stores. That summer the Shroyer sisters (Debbie, Jeannie, Vickie, and Susie) along with Szostek ran the store with the help of a handful of volunteers. As the pantry grew in popularity and volume, Shroyer envisioned stores where the work and effort were shared by many. Moreover, the stores were to be controlled by their workers and would be neighborhood based. Each neighborhood would have its own community store. Szostek began to write articles for Eddie Felien's underground newspaper Hundred Flowers to encourage other people to open their own neighborhood stores. Shroyer, a strong force behind the beginnings of the co-op movement, was also instrumental in the beginnings of the People's Company Bakery and People's Clothes cooperatives.

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