The Isla Vista Food Cooperative’s board members announced their financial situation has improved following the shutdown of its downtown location at a Feb. 18 board of directors meeting.
The Co-op has received positive feedback from shoppers who have noticed fuller shelves and friendly staff. Sherine John / Daily Nexus
The I.V. Food Co-op, a community-owned grocery store, has operated in I.V. for over five decades. In the past two years, the store has faced financial hardship due to decreased sales and revenue, leading to extensive fundraising efforts by board directors.
The Co-op’s Santa Barbara Downtown Market permanently closed after two years of operations in late December 2025. The location saw high expenses and low sales, putting the entire Co-op’s long-term stability at risk. As a result, the Co-op’s board of directors decided to shut down the store to dedicate more resources to the I.V. location and better address operational and financial challenges.
Board members stated that the I.V. Co-op will remain open, so owners should not be concerned about the store shutting down. In order to address financial concerns, Co-op board president Tyler Marton said he reached out to six other co-ops for advice on financial reporting to owners.
Since shutting down the downtown location, the Co-op has focused on improving the I.V. location by increasing inventory, hiring additional staff and launching community partnership programs, among other things. According to Co-op board member and general manager Lisa Oglesby, the Co-op has recently hired two additional staff members, bringing the total staff count to 17.
“We are growing from a very much skeleton crew to less of a skeleton crew,” Oglesby said.
Due to these improvements, Oglesby said she believes that customers “feel good” about shopping at the Co-op after receiving positive feedback from shoppers who have noticed fuller shelves and friendly staff. She mentioned that she was “unprepared” for operations “going as good as it’s going.”
In Jan. 2026, the Co-op saw a 10.8% increase in sales and a decrease in expenses since Jan. 2025. Additionally, the store averaged 434 customers per day with an average basket size of $18.13. Oglesby said that this is somewhat of an improvement from last year.
“What these key indicators are telling us is that we are on the road to recovery, not just in name, but also in truth,” Oglesby said.
Former Co-op board member, Marcelino Sepulveda, said that he believes the Co-op is still in a “precarious situation” due to uncertain financials, which has led Co-op owners to question whether the store will be able to remain open. Sepulveda requested the Co-op board to provide owners with increased information and transparency.
“Owners care about the Co-op; they show up at board meetings and try to understand what’s going on,” Sepulveda said. “I spoke with a friend this weekend who said to me, ‘I just don’t know if the store is going to be there in a month or two.’”
The Co-op faced a net loss of approximately $10,000 in January, which is in part due to additional expenses, including utility bills from the downtown location that had to be paid off.
“Factoring out those expenses, the loss for January was just $667.82, effectively a rounding error from being profitable,” Oglesby said. “This is a 73.5% improvement over the results of January 2025. For members who are concerned that the Co-op is closing in a month or two months — we’re okay.”
The Co-op’s partnership with the Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) has helped increase sales. IVCSD set aside funding to purchase 166 memberships for local households in order to strengthen local food access. Ogleby noted that there are still around 50 unclaimed memberships and that the program has been “hugely successful” in bringing in student shoppers.
“A lot of people are interacting with the Co-op because of this program, and we’re really grateful to our partners at the IVCSD for it,” Oglesby said.
Going forward, the Co-op aims to improve its financial performance by continuing to increase sales and eventually operate without losses, expand staff development and hire a new general manager.
Although the Co-op has not completely recovered from its financial difficulties, Oglesby recognized that “solid” progress has been made, especially considering that the Co-op is a community-owned small business.
“We don’t have any outside funding from other major organizations,” Oglesby said. “We don’t have any sweetheart deals anywhere. We stand on our own two feet, so our recovery is our own.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the Feb. 26, 2026 edition of the Daily Nexus.
