AltExpo - Co-op workshop

[jaqeboy]

Alt Expo Co-op workshop - Thursday, 5 February 2009
Training on how to order from United Natural Foods, Inc. through a local buying club

Friday 6 February, midnight is the order deadline in the order cycle in the existing UNFI buying club we can buy through.

We're going to hold a mini-workshop training at my house at 7PM Thursday evening, 5 February - come earlier (say 6 PM) for snacks and fellowship (please bring beverage of choice) - for anyone who wants to learn how to use the United Natural Foods buying club system.

We'll have sample products on display, and some that you can sample.

We'll have paper catalogs on display and you can download the .pdf file of the catalog (bring your wi-fi capable laptop).

We'll go over the recommended procedure for selecting and ordering foods from the co-op, and you can enter an item or 2 you might want onto my co-op order ( paid in advance, cash or local check). Delivery will be in 1 week, Friday, 13Feb09.

We'll cover how to find a co-op near you & how to start a new one - the basics of co-op'ing, especially with United Natural Foods, Inc. We'll also go over how we could start an ideal co-op and we'll be looking for folks to join in on that.

The potential with a co-op is to carry even other items not carried in the UNFI catalog, and we'll talk about that, as well.

We'll meet in the little dome at the Henniker Dome complex on 114, just 0.2 miles north of the Weare line, and a couple of miles south of the Pat's Peak ski area.

Meeting details:
5 February 2009
7 PM (come early, though - focussed workshop starts at 7)
Little dome
2307 Weare Road (left at the top of the driveway)
Henniker, New-Hampshire
map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2307+Weare+Road,+Henniker,+New+Hampshire&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=50.910968,79.101563&ie=UTF8&ll=43.150346,-71.663132&spn=0.184851,0.30899&z=12
(Note Google Maps shows a location about .2 miles north of our actual location)

(an Alternatives Expo mini-workshop)

[jaqeboy]

FAQ:

Some answers earlier provided, with a couple of mods:

Q: What is a food co-op?

A: A consumer co-operative is merely an enterprise that is run by the same folks that are the customers. Instead of realizing a profit, they realize "savings" from paying the retail prices.

Q: How is a co-op run?

A: We have infrequent meetings to resolve business issues. We each accept some work role in the management of the enterprise. Each person is involved in breaking down the order delivery, sorting, checking invoices, cleaning up afterwards.

Q: What kind of foods do you buy:

A: Ours is a natural foods co-op and we act as a buying club to purchase (in one order as a group) our foods from United Natural Foods, Inc. You could form a co-op to buy anything you wanted to, though. UNFI encourages buying clubs, since they evolved from a bunch of local hippie co-ops - it's their roots.

Q: What currency can I use to pay for my orders? Can I pay in silver or barter?

A: Yeah, we use USD, not barter or silver, since all UNFI takes is in USD. That doesn't mean a co-op couldn't do that (use some other money), though. Like anything, you just have to find people to accept the alt. currency.

Q: Why natural foods? Why not junk Chinese food with melamine in it like I can buy at Costco?

A: I won't get into the reasons to eat natural foods - that's another topic, but if you wanted to get better prices than the stores, purchasing together with others is a way to buy in volume and get wholesale prices.

Q: What are your overhead costs?

A: Our co-op doesn't have a store, so we don't have an overhead cost there (we have some minor expenses, like banking account costs).

Q: How do you get the fooood?

A: If the order is of sufficient size, the co-op delivers to us by truck (including refrigerated and frozen foods). We receive the truck at the town hall, and in good weather, we just break down the products off the pallet right there in the parking lot and put the stuff immediately in our cars.

Q: Why not grow your own food? Isn't that the way to be really self-sufficient?

A: You're right in that just working together to buy natural foods isn't as self-sufficient as growing your own food, but we can buy almost every home need through our co-op, including soap, trash bags, socks, sodas (natural), vitamins and all kinds of stuff - 60,000 items in the catalog. What is good about it is working together with other people to operate the enterprise and save money at the same time.

Q: How do I learn more about what to do next?

A: We'll conduct an AltExpo mini-workshop on co-oping every month until we gather enough folks to start a new co-op - see this forum calendar for announcements.

Q: How can I learn more about co-operatives?

A: Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on co-op'ing and the co-op movement.

Q: Does anyone else do this - co-ops, that is?

A: Btw, a credit union is just a co-op that handles money instead of food!

Cabot (cheese, mik, etc.) is a co-op, but a producer co-op.

REI, the outdoor outfitter is the largest co-op in the country, I understand.

[jaqeboy]

Just a note: The food co-op (buying club) we are presently buying through has an order deadline of this Friday, 6Feb, with a pick-up date of the following Friday, 13Feb. It used to be order 2 weeks in advance, but I think this will be better.

The interesting thing we'll get into at this Thursday's workshop is how we can form an even better co-op with some better features and products, starting with the United Natural Foods, Inc. base. You may want to join in on the New Co-op. Your input and requests will help make it the ideal operation.

See you there 6-7PM Thursday. The training part will start at 7 - be sure to bring a wi-fi capable laptop to peruse the online ordering system and to pick out a few items to order on this cycle.

[dalebert]

Are there any Keeniacs planning to go to either this or the marriage equality crap in Concord or both? I would go to this if I can carpool. I can take or leave the bill stuph in Concord.

[PaulOtt]

"natural foods" doesn't really mean much to me. What kind of food is this? What type of selection are we talking about? I looked on the United Natural Foods website and couldn't find much.

Personally, I haven't had much success looking for raw, grass-fed milk, grass-fed beef, and grass-fed eggs. On the other hand, I'd probably also be interested if they had ethnic vegetables (particularly Korean/Japanese) for my girlfriend's sake.

Is there any way to find out more information about this, like possibly downloading the .pdf if we missed the meeting yesterday?

[jaqeboy]

PM me your email address and I'll send you the pdf catalog. Apparently, it can only be viewed on the site by members.

"Natural" in this case means, I believe, no synthetic ingredients, though you might find some better definition online. If you go to your local health food store like the A Market in Manchester or the Concord Co-operative Market, you'll see a storeful of products, which they obtain from the same distributor, UNFI. So, a good practice is to find what you like there and, if it's going to be a regular purchase for you, start ordering through your own co-op for a savings.

Our co-op doesn't handle fresh meat or produce, but you can get everything else, including snack foods, frozen foods, refrigerated foods (like butter, milk, eggs), spices, vitamins and supplements, papergoods, some clothing items, bulk grains and beans - lots o stuff - I think it's 6,000 items in the catalog. I'll bring copies to the raw foods thing up in Grafton tomorrow (later today actually) if you'll be there.

"natural foods" doesn't really mean much to me. What kind of food is this? What type of selection are we talking about? I looked on the United Natural Foods website and couldn't find much.

Personally, I haven't had much success looking for raw, grass-fed milk, grass-fed beef, and grass-fed eggs. On the other hand, I'd probably also be interested if they had ethnic vegetables (particularly Korean/Japanese) for my girlfriend's sake.

Is there any way to find out more information about this, like possibly downloading the .pdf if we missed the meeting yesterday?

[jaqeboy]

Good news! I got the okay earlier today to have the next workshop/training at Liberty Books in Concord. He's got wifi, so we can get online to view the catalog, then to do ordering.

Looks like we're not far off from forming our own buying club centered in Concord. I'll announce the workshop date when we set it.

[jaqeboy]

Good news! I got the okay earlier today to have the next workshop/training at Liberty Books in Concord. He's got wifi, so we can get online to view the catalog, then to do ordering.

Looks like we're not far off from forming our own buying club centered in Concord. I'll announce the workshop date when we set it.

We're trying to fit in a co-op one hour session at AltExpo#3, since the Concord pick-up location is coming together and we want to get the idea out to as many people as possible. Watch for the schedule to be finalized for AltExpo#3 at LibertyForum'09 in a day or so. It's undergoing a slight re-shuffling.

It'll be at http://altexpo.org - and again we're putting out an appeal for some website design help.

[jaqeboy]

"natural foods" doesn't really mean much to me. What kind of food is this? What type of selection are we talking about? I looked on the United Natural Foods website and couldn't find much.

I found UNFI's definition of natural foods:

UNFI defines natural products as those which:

    * Do not contain synthetic ingredients
    * Do not contain artificial ingredients including colors or flavoring
    * Do not contain synthetic chemical preservatives.

[jaqeboy]

Oh, and BTW, we'll have another co-op workshop at AltExpo#4, site #36, Rogers Campground, 11:30AM on Friday at PorcFest '09. We can go over what we've done so far in setting up a co-op to serve our community. We've got a meeting place and drop-off location in Concord... Just come to the talk at the AltExpo for all the details.