In February we successfully met a $25,000 Share Match. But far more people wanted to jump on the opportunity to double the impact of their investment than the match could support. Because so many people were interested in boosting their investment power to generate even more investment dollars for our grocery enterprise, we have secured $50,000 from a group of investors to put up as another (bigger) Share Match offering.

Every share that’s purchased in our local business by May 24, 2013 will be matched by an additional share purchased by these investors. The investors will match up to $50,000 in total shares. This means that a $1,000 investment will generate another $1,000 investment. A $2,500 investment will generate another $2,500 investment. You get the idea: double the impact of your investment by purchasing shares before May 24th.

We only have 2 weeks to meet this match. Help us build momentum toward creating a grocery store in West Oakland that will serve 11,000 families.

Invest locally.
Make a positive social impact.
Earn 3% annual interest + 1% annual store credit.

We recently called for help to seize a $20,000 Share-for-Share Match opportunity in which every share purchased by a member of the public would be matched by an investor until we reached a total of $20,000. As momentum from the response to our call began to build the investor increased her match to $25,000.

But even the match increase couldn’t begin to, well, match the incredible response we received from people wanting to help us accelerate our community investment campaign. We raised $110,000 from 48 investors during the match period – over 4 times the match amount! There was such a tremendous rush of people on the last day of the match that our website crashed from all of the traffic.

Here’s a diagram showing the extraordinary response we got from this call:

This shows the power of small investors and of a crowd of like-minded and passionate people rallying together. The vast majority of people who have become Founding Shareholders are working class and middle class individuals and families. Consider the following:

–82% of our shareholders are unaccredited (< $2M in net worth and < $200K in annual income).
–49% of our shareholders invested the minimum required amount of $1,000.
–93% of our shareholders invested $5,000 or less.

Here’s a breakdown of the people who have invested so far by the amounts that they invested:

In addition to showing the power of small investors and how they’re the backbone of this campaign, this recent surge shows the power of LOCAL investing. Here’s a diagram showing where our Founding Shareholders live:

As you can see, 65% of our new shareholders live in Oakland and Berkeley and 98% live in the San Francisco Bay Area. A growing number of people from the local area are reaching out to us who, as was stated in a recent article  in the San Francisco Chronicle, “want to put their money toward building a better community”.

We’re thrilled about this rush of small investors. And we know we still have a long way to go to reach our goal of $1M. We’re hopeful that this recent wave is just the beginning of a greater momentum that it will propel us into the next phase of the project — securing a loan and a lease and preparing to break ground.

If you missed the opportunity to respond to the recent match please don’t wait any longer to take action. The sooner you join us as a Founding Shareholder the sooner we’ll be able to switch from selling company stock to stocking and selling groceries!  

It’s not because she lives in a rural place far from shops and businesses. The 60-year-old lives in West Oakland. But it may as well be the middle of nowhere as far as a full-service grocery store is concerned – the nearest one is a Pak ‘n Save in Emeryville, about 1.5 miles away.

Have you been thinking about investing in People’s Community Market but haven’t gotten around to doing it yet? Now is your chance to act and double your impact!

An investor is offering a $20,000 Share-for-Share Match. This is a unique opportunity in which every share that’s purchased in our enterprise by March 1, 2013 will be matched by an additional share purchased by an investor. The investor will match up to $20,000 in total shares. This means that, at a $1,000 minimum investment, it will take no more than twenty people to seize this opportunity.

We have 2.5 weeks to meet this match! Take advantage of this opportunity to double the impact of your investment. Help us build momentum toward creating a grocery store in West Oakland that will serve 11,000 families who currently don’t have access to a full-service grocery store.

Invest locally.
Make a positive social impact.
Earn 3% annual interest + 1% annual store credit.

The gathering also included a large-group discussion about creating a community board, tentatively called the Community Advisory Council, that would be continuously engaged in providing feedback and guidance to our planning, helping outreach to the community when we get close to opening our doors and acting as a liaison between the community and our business to voice the interests and desires of local residents. There was an interest expressed by many attendes for the community board to interface with PCM’s board and managers in order to ensure that the company’s leadership maintains strong relationships in the community and can be held accountable to its commitments when necessary.

It was decided that a committee of residents would be formed that would, over the course of 6 months, work on developing a design and plan for the Community Advisory Council. The first meeting of the committee was held on January 29th and co-facilitated by PCM and People’s Grocery staff. The committee began to flush out the structure and management of the council, what the roles and responsibilities of the council members would be and how the councils’s composition and membership would be determined.

Four initial working groups within the council were also identified:

-Health Servicesand Social Supports
-Merchandising and Services
-Workforce Development
-Advocacy and Action

The next meeting of the committee will be held in mid-February and will be focused on continuing to refine the various elements of the Community Advisory Council. PCM’s board of directors will be meeting in March and what the committee has developed by that time will be presented to the board for discussion.

Want to give your family and friends a unique and meaningful gift that will last long beyond the holidays? Give them the gift of being Founders and Shareholders in People’s Community Market!

Buying preferred shares in our community enterprise is a concrete way to help create a locally-owned, independent full-service grocery store that will support the nutritional and social wellbeing of thousands of West Oakland families.

Through this gift your family and friends can be directly engaged in creating a more thriving Oakland for years to come. Plus, our shares offer a modest financial return through annual interest earnings and an annual in-store shopping credit.

While thinking about end-of-the-year financial decisions, consider making a local investment, right in Oakland, that will have a sustainable and positive impact.

It has been just a little over a month since we launched our community investment campaign (known as a Direct Public Offering). And it has been going pretty well so far. We’re raising about $10,000 a week from selling our company shares, ranging from the $1,000 minimum investment to $10,000 or more. We’re getting an average of three “hits” a day, which we define as when people make an inquiry about our investment opportunity or take the questionnaire on our website (the first step in investing). We’ve seen a lot of traffic coming in other ways as well, such as people signing up for our events, info sessions, house parties, requesting a one-on-one conversation with us and signing up as a Champion to help spread the word.

We have secured about $200,000 so far. An initial wave of investments came from a handful of investors who we already knew and, in many cases, had already committed to investing in us even before we launched the campaign. Most of those investments have been in the $10,000 – $25,000 range.

Following this initial wave of larger investments, the majority of investments have been much smaller….in the range of $1,000 – $5,000. This shows that we’re attracting people of very diverse economic backgrounds and financial abilities. Since being inclusive and accessible is an important value to us, we’re very pleased to see that “average folks”, in addition to more affluent investors, are investing in us and becoming Shareholders.

In fact, it’s these “average folks” who are demonstrating the potential power of this community investment approach. While we’re grateful for the more affluent investors who have invested in us, we also recognize that, for many of them, making an investment doesn’t necessarily impact their current or future financial abilities. But we know that, for individuals and families who are stepping up to make an investment despite the fact that, in many cases, they don’t have a lot of money, the strain of making this investment is very real. These investors are making a big sacrifice out of their values and their desires to see this venture become real and for West Oakland to have a full-service grocery store.

We are absolutely blown away and profoundly humbled by the courage and commitment that these small investors have shown us and are deeply honored to have their trust and commitment. What we’ve learned in the last month, as dozens of stories unfold about average people investing in us, is that there’s a real upswell of local citizen action toward creating more thriving communities and local economies. Our theory in launching this community investment campaign was that lots of people are ready to participate in supporting alternative ways of creating locally-owned, mission-driven business. While we still have a way to go before we will know if this is going to be a lasting trend, so far our theory is being proven true.