Supplier Distribution Issues
The Coop wants to provide an important update about a supply disruption that is affecting Coop stock levels.
Last week, UNFI – our largest distributor, responsible for approximately 32% of the Coop’s purchasing – experienced a cyber attack that took their ordering and receiving systems offline. As a result, we are currently unable to place orders with them, and you may have noticed a larger-than-usual number of out-of-stock items in the store.
UNFI is one of the nation’s largest suppliers of natural and organic foods, and this incident is impacting food co-ops and grocery retailers across the country. UNFI has assured customers that they are making progress bringing their systems back online and we are hoping this situation will be resolved soon.
In response, the Coop’s buying team has been working hard to secure inventory through our strong network of local and regional suppliers. Over the weekend, we redirected our usual UNFI orders to secondary distributors and were able to receive about 70% of what we ordered on Monday. However, some suppliers have since informed us that the UNFI outage is affecting their ability to fulfill orders due to increased demand from many retailers.
As we work with these alternative suppliers, please be aware that their wholesale prices are sometimes higher than those we receive from UNFI and you may see higher Coop prices on certain items. Once UNFI resumes regular deliveries and we receive items at their lower wholesale prices, Coop prices will go back down.
This situation requires a tremendous effort from our buying team, and they are doing an incredible job finding alternative sources for thousands of products to minimize the impact on members shopping at the Coop. We are immensely thankful for their hard work and dedication.
We appreciate your patience as we work to restock the Coop’s shelves as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your understanding,
Joe Szladek
General Coordinator for Purchasing and Operations