Author:  Jeanne Lakso Competition in the grocery industry is fierce. With more retailers entering the natural and organic market and more shoppers purchasing natural and organic foods at conventional stores, food co-ops need to act and perform as though new competitors are just seconds away. When many of the so-called "new wave" food cooperatives in the U.S. were founded, they were often the only purveyors of organic, local, whole foods in their ...