Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Gillotte.
Hi Dan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been working in food co-ops my whole adult life after graduating from art school at the Maine College of Art in Portland ME. I moved to Austin, TX in 1998 and started running a medium food co-op called Wheatsville Food Co-op- over a couple decades my team and I grew that store from one $4,000,000 a year store with 55 staff people to two stores, sales of over $34,000,000 and 230 staff. I left that job after ~20 years and took some time off to live in Costa Rica, my wife got an opportunity to work with her company there. Then I came back to the US and started to look for my next food co-op job. Greenbelt Co-op Supermarket & Pharmacy in historic Greenbelt, MD was hiring so I jumped at it.
I was hired and started the day the Covid mask mandate went into effect in Maryland, what a TIME to start a new job in the grocery industry! After managing through the extremely trying times of pandemic I’ve been working to make this food co-op financially strong and thriving.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Running a grocery store, especially an independent co-op is tough. It’s a brutal business with incredibly tight profit margins and lots of competition. In my career, the industry (like most) has changed a lot and so it’s taken much focus to keep the fundamentals strong but also learn new technology, changing customer expectations, etc.
As you know, we’re big fans of Greenbelt Co-op Supermarket & Pharmacy. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Greenbelt Co-op Supermarket & Pharmacy serves our community in historic Greenbelt, MD. We focus on having something for everyone in our comfortable and friendly store within our incredibly vibrant and walkable city center. We offer full line groceries including fresh produce, meat and seafood, a prepared foods and bakery section and a pharmacy! We’re proud that we serve Greenbelt in a space big enough to meet their needs but small enough to meet their neighbors!
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
A positive view of the future plus determination/ perseverance. I don’t give up, when times are tough I look inward for strength and dig in and lean in to solve problems to try and make things better.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.greenbelt.coop
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenbeltcoop
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenbeltCoop
