Co-op Statistics: The Who, What, Where, and When of Students’ Main Open-Campus Destination
The moment a freshman becomes a sophomore, one major thing changes: they will soon have the privilege to go off-campus. And the number one choice for utilizing this privilege is to go to the Co-op. Of 220 respondents to a survey of Hanover High students about how often they go to the Co-op, about 79% of them say they go to the Co-op at least once a week. Also, 75% of students indicated that they did not have a preference on which day to go, so each school day attracts about the same amount of students. The five most popular Co-op items among students are drinks, fries, fried chicken, sushi, and candy. Another interesting fact is that the majority of students thought the Co-op was somewhere between 30-50 years old. To most, the grocery store chain may just seem like another cafeteria or shopping location opened not long ago. However, the Co-op has interesting roots and has been around for 81 years.
The first Co-op was opened by the Hanover Consumer’s club, in the basement of the Dartmouth Bookstore building. The store made a revenue of $11,404 in its first year of sales. Each year, the Coop continued attracting more and more shoppers. Soon, the space became too small to support all the activity and parking became a problem. For decades, the Co-op continued to flourish and ran many modifications and renovations. Today, the Co-op serves more than 20,000 member households, with the store earning an annual revenue of $70 million. Indeed, the students at Hanover High have been supporting the propelling force for the Co-op business.