Heather Heier and her son, Alex Lane, at the Wedge. Alex is often the family’s go-to runner for last-minute grocery errands. Photos: Chris Emeott
As settings go, the local market remains an enduring social anchor, built on the exchange of stories as well as goods. For this community, the Linden Hills Wedge Community Co-op is a scene of familiar faces, friendly greetings and reusable canvas bags, filled with fresh ingredients for dinner.
Co-op member Heather Heier says buying her home 14 years ago also meant buying a neighborhood. She lives in that sweet spot of town that is on the border between Edina and Linden Hills. “The co-op is part of our story,” Heier says. When her sons Alex and Andrew were a baby and a toddler, Heier would walk the neighborhood with them and visit the co-op regularly for gluten-free muffins. Now, as teenagers, they still visit regularly. For Heier, the convenience of living just down the street is unmatched. “If I’m in the middle of making dinner and need a lemon, or some cilantro or nondairy yogurt, I can walk down there, grab what I need and be home to make my dinner in minutes,” she says.
In this photo, taken by Heier, a younger Alex pushes a miniature shopping cart through the store. Its small flag reads, “Locally Grown.” Heier says the phrase feels especially fitting for her family, given how closely their routines and memories are tied to the co-op and the neighborhood.
Earlier this year, the Wedge celebrated its 50th anniversary with a major renovation. Store manager Lisa Coyne is excited about the changes. “When you walk in now, it’s so much more open,” she says of the reconfigured entrance. The cafe also got a refresh, and the produce section saw some upgrades as well. The co-op added a few self-checkout kiosks for customers who need to get in and get out quickly but was intentional about preserving the staffed checkout lanes. “People want the human connection,” Coyne says.
Lisa Coyne
Describing what makes the Wedge special, Coyne smiles and shares a slogan from the 1990s that still rings true: Big enough to meet your needs. Small enough to meet your neighbors. That’s the value of a local market, right there, says Swapna Desai, the co-op’s marketing director. “Customers in this area have many grocery providers to choose from,” Desai says. “The fact that they choose us speaks to our commitment to their shared values.” Those values include support for sustainable farming practices, fair trade, access to organic produce, livable wages and more.
Moving back to the area after living in Oregon for 20 years, Edina resident Kristen Marinovich says, “Finding the co-op was my saving grace. It gave me a community of likeminded people who care deeply about the environment and believe it’s important to know where our food comes from, to feel connected to it.” The story behind the product is important to customers like Marinovich, who enjoy social exchanges that shift grocery shopping from a solitary chore to a communal act. “I’ve always prioritized having high quality, fresh food,” she says as she prepares a meal for a dinner party at her home. “I value eating well and feeding people well.”
The Wedge added self-checkout kiosks to reduce wait times and ease congestion at traditional checkout lanes.
The farm-to-table concept is ubiquitous, but for the Wedge, it’s a logistical commitment rather than a marketing catchphrase. Co-op Partners Warehouse (CPW), a subsidiary of the Wedge since 1999, is a certified-organic wholesale distributor for five states in the Upper Midwest. The 2017 merger between the Wedge on Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis and the Linden Hills Co-op allowed both to buy higher volumes from smaller, local growers, which made it more financially viable for those local growers to stay in business. “Now, more than 60 percent of our produce comes through CPW,” Desai says. “The less it has to travel, the better,” Coyne says, referring to the organization’s mission of building a stable and sustainable local food system.
Dedicated customer Kristen Marinovich says she shops at the Wedge for its strong selection of organic and local products. Photo: Heather Heier
As part of the renovation, the co-op invested in a substantial power generator to ensure it can remain fully operational during a power outage. “This update allows us to continuously provide an essential need for our community,” Coyne says. Keeping the lights on for its neighbors is one example of the organization’s sense of community responsibility. Another example is the Change Matters program, which leverages the simple act of rounding up at the register to support local nonprofits whose work directly benefits the community. Since it began in 2017, this program has donated over $1.2 million to organizations, like the Midwest Food Connection, the SEAD Project and Tubman. The program’s average monthly donation is $10,000, proving even “small change” can make a big impact.
The Linden Hills Wedge Community Co-op has new cafe seating, part of an effort to make the neighborhood grocery store feel more like a community gathering space.
In the checkout line, Natalie Lunda smiles, seeing children help out with bagging groceries like she used to 20 years ago. “I packed the groceries like a professional at 5 years old,” she says with a laugh. She loved helping her mom pick out bulk eggs and check things off the list. Living out its values and redefining community by investing in its neighbors, the Wedge will no doubt continue to be part of the community’s story for another 50 years.
Linden Hills Wedge Community Co-op
Instagram: @wedge_community_coops
