It’s Complicated - A Message from the GM, July 2026

No apologies in advance for this. The following may induce some unsavory graphic imagery and could possibly raise some folks’ ire. So, I’ll just get to it.

We have concluded that we need to enforce existing policy regarding people’s behavior, in and around the store, and re-establish boundaries to ensure a comfortable and smooth shopping experience, decrease the potential for health hazards, and improve the security of Co-op staff and property. If you’re already thinking that I’m referencing our neighboring homeless population, you wouldn’t be wrong, but I’m also including everyone else who enters the building. Some of what I outline here will be specific to our homeless neighbors and those in the orbit of the Room at the Inn (RATI) Warming Center and Emergency Shelter. Other statements and measures will include everyone. But when staff leadership — managers, supervisors, and persons in charge — take the time to tell me that they feel like “we are under siege” with people’s behavioral issues in and around the property, I pay attention.

Homelessness in Marquette is a complicated issue. I am not even close to being an expert at understanding it. I am so thankful for the experts we do have in the staff and management of RATI. They are nothing short of actual heroes in a time when the meaning of the word “hero” erodes. My understanding of homelessness is likely the same as yours — incomplete and biased by isolated observances. We all can quickly jump to ill-informed conclusions in one direction or the other, but the depth of the truth of the matter eludes us. One of my observances, among ones to the contrary, is that many homeless folks are regular customers of the Co-op. As customers, they are welcome here.

Matt Gougeon, General Manager

In managing all things Co-op, I generally try to “hit singles up the middle, and move the runners along,” to use a baseball metaphor. Meaning, I try to do what is best for the most, keeping members, community, and others top of mind. Unfortunately, if one takes their eye off the ball when it comes to people interacting with the store, there can be “poor behavior creep.” We know when this happens through an increase in shopper complaints and the afore-mentioned staff feeling beleaguered by managing the poorly behaved and having to clean up after them.

To wit: the number of panhandlers has increased, not because we necessarily allow them, but because panhandling is lucrative near our parking lot exit as some Co-op shoppers are generous. Loitering in the café and exterior Co-op property (behind our kitchen and receiving bay area, benches on Washington St.) has increased as we are rightfully seen as a warm and accepting place. This also leads to an increase in smoking and drinking on Co-op property. Shoplifting is on the uptick but is certainly not isolated to the homeless folks although they, at times, perpetrate a quick grab. Regular shoppers also steal. Sometimes as much as hundreds of dollars of products at a time.

Unfortunately, the Co-op also serves as downtown Marquette’s de facto public bathroom. While we’re happy to provide clean, comfortable bathrooms, take a moment and imagine all the ways a private locked space may be used by a person, or people, and the types of bodily fluids, paraphernalia, and trash that get left behind. This creates a health hazard to clean up, relegated to Co-op staff. Again, excessive ormisuse of our bathrooms is not consigned to only our homeless neighbors. Not by a long shot.

On behalf of our staff and customers, we have created a plan to repel this “siege” of unacceptable behaviors. The plan presents more like a “double off the right field wall” than a single up the middle. More impactful. In truth, this plan only enforces our existing policies that address these behaviors. Working with RATI, the Marquette Police Department (MPD), a private security firm, local contractors, and even the Community Foundation of Marquette County, we will take the following actions.

• Install signage around Co-op property prohibiting soliciting, loitering, smoking, drinking, and unacceptable bicycle parking. (yes, bicycle parking)

• Install a locked fence/gate and an additional security light behind our kitchen and near the dumpsters.

• RATI will communicate our prohibitions to the shelter populations through meetings and street outreach efforts.

• Staff are empowered to call the police instead of mitigating individual situations of poor behavior and request an order of trespass (we do this multiple times a year already).

• MPD consulted with us on our planning and are prepared for an increase in calls to serve orders of trespass.

• We will hire short-term security personnel to aid in monitoring the store and property and to liaise with MPD, relieving some of the pressure on staff.

And finally, the Co-op is working with the Community Foundation of Marquette County to provide seed money for an endowment fund named the Room at the Inn Designated Fund. The Foundation has been working to establish this endowment and the timing of our actions aligned with its development. To be clear, we care about our homeless neighbors, and we especially care about the staff and volunteers of RATI and whether they have the financial resources available to them to provide for the care and assistance of their clients. This fund will serve in that purpose, and we are proud to make the initial deposit.

In the end, we are focused on making shopping and participation in the Marquette Food Co-op a pleasant, safe, and equitable experience for members, staff, and other shoppers. To do that, we sometimes must enforce our rules of engagement a little more obviously.

Feel good. Shop the Co-op.