For some reason this category drew more votes than any other. The member-owned consumer cooperative known as the North Coast Co-op garnered almost as many votes as its two closest competitors — Wildberries and Eureka Natural Foods — combined. You’d have to factor in the fact the Co-op has stores in Arcata and Eureka, but we’re guessing it’s the ownership thing (as in “we own it”) and the fact that the Co-op has been doing the natural foods thing, and doing it well, since 1973.
— Bob Doran
The Breakdown: North Coast Co-Op 29.5%, Wildberries 17.3%, Eureka Natural Foods 14.4%, WinCo 12.3%, Murphy’s 12.1%, Voter Turnout: First.
This article appears in Best of Humboldt 2011.
Hmmm…the more of these winners I read, the more I realize maybe The Journal does this every year to get a good sense of who their audience is and the best way to market to them, no? Certainly the majority of
winners come from the same stereotypical Humboldt County culture.