The Dixon Cooperative Market, a grocery store and community hub, celebrated winning a $40,000 prize in a national competition for small businesses on Monday.
With a musician Bryan Bielanski playing, free coffee and people sitting at tables out front, the Co-Op felt festive on the day the community received a check, second prize in Barclays Small Business Big Wins contest.
"The Co-Op is the main central point of Dixon," said board president Nancy Levit. "This is the social and emotional support place of town."
The store's manager Clark Case sent a photograph and essay to the competition about its beginnings in 2006, since when membership has grown to 440 households. Sales have grown 80% since the beginning of the pandemic.
The entry reached the top ten of 14,200 entries, and won second place after an online vote.
Case said the board has worked hard to keep the store open as nearby communities in Rio Arriba and Taos counties have seen grocery stores close down.
"And as each one of them closes, and they're replaced by chain stores, Dollar General and Family Dollar, the food quality goes down," he said.
He said people's health suffers.
"Because they don't have access to good green food. And they end up having to travel miles and miles just to get their groceries."
Stores closing also means small towns have no businesses which would keep money in the area, he said. But the Dixon Co-Op paid over $300,000 in wages to employees in the past year.
In addition, the store sold more than $50,000 of local produce, and local artists and craftspeople sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of work there.
Case said the plan is to use the prize money along with a USDA award to expand the footprint of the store.
