The National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) is a business services cooperative for natural food co-ops located throughout the United States. NCGA helps unify natural food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere.

Mission & Ends Statements

Mission: NCGA will provide the vision, leadership and systems to catapult a virtual chain of food co-ops to a position of prominence in the natural foods industry.

Ends (Global): NCGA embodies the aspirations of its members through integration and programs that provide the capacity of a chain while supporting the autonomy of a local business. The benefits of NCGAmembership warrant the resources and participation required of its members.

Further, on behalf of NCGA members, the association accepts responsibility for these outcomes:

• A dynamic and transparent organization with clear and meaningful ways for members to participate.
• Members are successful in a competitive market and have access to:
  • competitive pricing
  • professional development and training
  • product selection & sourcing tailored to common needs
  • operational and merchandising best practices
• A powerful advocacy voice for food co-op issues.
• A development mechanism for new and expanding co-ops.
• Members adhere to agreed upon program standards.

Key Statistics

• Our 114 independent co-op members operate over 145 storefronts in 32 states with combined annual sales of nearly $1.2 billion.
• The largest cooperative operates nine stores, generating over $100 million in annual sales, with over 44,000 consumer owners. The smallest cooperative has less than $1 million in annual sales.
• The median cooperative was founded in 1975.