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Co-op Worker Profile:
Jennifer Grainer
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by Hope Perlman
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In April 2009, Jennifer
Grainer joined the Honest Weight Food Coop's staff as the Marketing and
Merchandizing Coordinator. Marketing and advertising the HWFC and its
products is a large multi-part job. Jennifer handles the direct outside
marketing and promotional work of the Co-op. She gets the word out
about HWFC news and events to newspapers, television, radio and blogs.
She also handles the HWFC's exposure in social media, updating Twitter
daily (www.twitter.com/hwfc)
and working to create a single, official Facebook page, which she
updates three times weekly.
A photographer, she takes product shots and documents meetings and
events for the HWFC for placement in blogs and advertisements. She also
creates all the in-store signage, coupon books, shelf labels and
flyers. Another important part of her job is creating materials for and
co-hosting store events, such as Healthy Heart Month and the Eat Local
Challenge, which started on August 29.
Originally from Canajoharie, Jennifer moved to Albany in 2000 to attend
Sage College of Albany. She earned her BFA in photography, and after
graduating became manager of the photography store in Stuyvesant Plaza.
Looking to broaden her skills and apply her interests in a different
setting, Jennifer applied for the position at the HWFC. She is happy to
work at what some consider "dirty" work (i.e., advertising) in a place
that sells good, useful and important merchandise.
When not at her day job, Jennifer is an artist. In addition to
photography, she works in collage. Her creations merge clippings and
found objects into 3-D pieces. She loves to collect salt and pepper
shakers, kitchen timers, matchbooks and magazines. For her collages,
she often starts with an iconic image or event, such as George
Washington cutting down the cherry tree, and plays with aspects of it.
She en- joys the art scene in Albany, which she finds open and
welcoming to all kinds of artists. She appreciates the cooperative
galleries here and used to participate frequently in impromptu shows
put on with permission in abandoned or unused buildings.
Like many people profiled in the Scoop, Jennifer reports that the best
aspect of working at the HWFC is working with people who share similar
tastes and interests. She also loves the produce department and
experiments with the new items she discovers there. Last week she found
small Turkish eggplants--"Locally grown, of course"--and said they
"tasted like love on the grill." If she could improve her job, Jennifer
would find more ways to incorporate photography into her work.
She would also like to find several more hours in the day, and she
would use them to update the Coop's website--to make it easier to
manage and more friendly to users.
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