Alisa Melior’s relationship with the Moscow Food Co-op began nearly two decades ago as a volunteer, packaging dried fruit at the age of 18. Now, she is the general manager of the Co-op’s branch on the University of Idaho campus, which opened a year ago.
Her high energy and commitment to customer service resides on the corner of University Avenue and Elm Street — home to plenty of natural light, the scent of freshly roasted coffee and a variety of grab-and-go foods.
Born and raised in Pullman, Melior put her interest in nutrition aside to graduate with a philosophy degree from Washington State University. Working as a barista at various coffee shops — such as the Daily Grind and Thomas Hammer — during college, she said she has always enjoyed customer service jobs because of the people.
“I learn so much from my costumers every day, and it’s rewarding to get people’s days started with a fresh cup of coffee,” Melior said. “I get all kinds of fun facts and interesting information from costumers —it’s just a blast.”
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After graduation, she travelled to Boulder, Colorado, for four years with her soon-to-be husband before coming back to Moscow. Upon her return, she set aside her philosophy degree in favor of a career in customer service — her passion.
Once the construction of the new Co-op was completed at UI, Melior said she was immediately hired as the general manager. She said she is passionate about bringing a higher quality of nutritious food options to campus, especially for people with dietary restrictions where options are often not as readily available elsewhere.
“I have never been able to take something from the ground up, which has been a really cool experience,” Melior said. “And fortuitously (by chance), my boss, Melinda Schab, is incredibly open with me trusting my instincts, which is something you don’t always get when you are doing something new.”
Schab, general manager of the downtown Co-op, said Melior loves hearing suggestions and requests from costumers. She said she is the perfect person to manage the campus endeavor, especially due to her long history with the Co-op, as well as her understanding of the business model and its desired impact on the community.
“Alisa is a talented barista who genuinely loves serving customers, and it shows,” Schab said. “She’s easy to get along with and she’s incredibly flexible. I don’t believe we could have hired a better person to represent the Co-op to the campus community.”
Schab said no one knew what to expect in terms of sales with the opening of the campus location, but she said she is delighted it’s going well.
“Truthfully, we are always looking to improve our product selection to meet the needs of our costumers — we think of this work as an ongoing process,” Schab said. “We consider our hours to be fairly flexible as well, (and) we’re interested in meeting the needs of the campus community, so we love feedback.”
Melior said one of the biggest challenges and surprises she has experienced in the first year since the opening is the shelf life of some items. She said it can be a guessing game to predict, without any background, how much inventory to order every week —especially for perishable foods. Beyond that, Melior said she still wants to get the word out to more people about the location.
She said there is no right way to do things, but now there is a year of trial and error to reflect back on and learn from.
“We are learning as we go, but so far the campus community has been really enthusiastic and supportive of this Co-op, which makes me really happy,” Melior said. “I would really like to see more students realizing that we are here. Staff and faculty have been so good for us, and students are great as well, but I feel like students are the most marginalized percentage of our clientele right now.”
A few paces away from the Campus Co-op entrance is a shared space with The Center — formerly known as the Campus Christian Center — filled with tables, chairs, couches, antique lamps, busy bookshelves and rusty orange carpet.
The Center has been a great host by having extra space for everyone to share, Melior said.
Karla Neumann Smiley, Lutheran campus minister and the longest serving staff member of The Center, said having the Co-op upstairs has been a positive and energizing experience, despite the process of constant upheaval and somewhat chaotic construction in 2017.
“We gave up some main office space so the Co-op could come in, but we were also able to update our kitchen and put in a handicap accessible bathroom upstairs,” Neumann Smiley said. “I think with a transition this big, things could not have gone any smoother.”
Neumann Smiley has familiarity with the downtown cooperative as a member-owner for more than 18 years, but she said she has enjoyed getting to know more people behind-the-scenes in the back offices, rather than just the people up front.
She said the biggest obstacle of downsizing The Center has simply been sharing and finding spaces for things. However, she has dreams of growth.
“The future isn’t bad to good, but good to better,” Neumann Smiley said. “And looking at ways that we can keep serving both of our constituencies and recognizing there is an overlap.”
She said the biggest word she has for campus is to come check out the Co-op, and to also come check out The Center — both upstairs and down.
“The common misconception I hear is that the Co-op bought the building, but we are still here — there was no replacement, there is just a bigger way of serving campus on this corner now,” Neumann Smiley said.
Allison Spain can be reached at [email protected]