Los Alamos Co-Op Market Celebrates 15 Years Serving the Community

Two years ago, the Los Alamos Cooperative Market was months away from shutting its doors. On Saturday, it threw a birthday party.

The co-op, Los Alamos County's only independent cooperative grocery store, marked its 15th anniversary at 95 Entrada Drive with a vendor fair, special savings and giveaways running from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The milestone capped a recovery arc that began in March 2024, when the store publicly disclosed it needed at least a 20 percent increase in sales within six months to stay solvent. That figure, now a point of local pride rather than alarm, is the number worth repeating: a community-owned grocery in a mountain town nearly became one more casualty of national chain competition.

The closure announcement set off an immediate surge. Member engagement spiked and customer traffic climbed sharply, outcomes the co-op credited to community loyalty. General Manager Andre Chavez, who joined in October 2022, had already started reversing a sales slide that began in 2021, when pandemic-era shopping habits shifted and a large national competitor opened nearby. The recovery was real but incomplete; by early 2025 the store was still operating at a loss, and staff and board members were again urging residents to treat the co-op as a regular stop rather than an occasional one.

Saturday's vendor fair spotlighted the local producers whose products differentiate the co-op from its chain competitors: makers like Above Sea Level, Beck & Bulow and B's Honey occupy shelf space that national retailers typically do not offer to small northern New Mexico producers. For shoppers using SNAP benefits, the co-op also participates in Double Up Food Bucks, a program that doubles the value of those benefits on locally grown produce, making it one of the few access points in the county where that program is available.

The store opened in 2011 as the first independent cooperative grocery in Los Alamos County, founded by residents who wanted a store oriented toward local farmers and sustainable sourcing rather than mass-market supply chains. In a relatively isolated mountain community, that distinction carries practical weight: when a specialty food retailer closes here, the nearest comparable alternative is a significant drive down the hill.

Mike Brake's photography exhibit, installed in the co-op's Artist Café, runs through April 30. The store is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.