Food Co-oping

[Russell Kanning]

in Jack's case ... he gets food unavailable at stores for the same price

no multi-levels of marketing
no profit on bottom levels

[jaqeboy]

Oops, sorry for the delay in responding to this - procrastination kills!

In the case of a food co-op, like I'm in:

A 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. We have infrequent meetings to settle business issues and we each accept some work role. Each person has to be involved in breaking down the order delivery. My work role is to train new members on how to use the on-line ordering system.

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

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. 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). 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 produxts off the pallet right there in the parking lot and put the stuff immediately in our cars.

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) 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. I'm conducting an AltExpo mini-workshop on co-oping every month until we gather enough folks to start a new co-op - see this thread.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on co-op'ing and the co-op movement. Btw, a credit union is just a co-op that handles money instead of food!

For the benefit of the ignorant (and the lazy who don't want to do the necessary research), what exactly is a food co-op, what's the benefits and drawbacks, etc...  I'm sure I can look it up on Wiki, but if somebody could give me a brief encapsulation of the whole thing from the Free Stater perspective, if you will.

Why... for example, would I not just go to Sam's Club or Costco to buy my stuff in bulk, and get insane prices which are amost unbeatable?  Though I realize a 30 pack of "Hot Pockets" for $6 won't exactly satisfy the organic food types, which is the kind of crap that Sam's Club and Costco seems to sell... I don't think they have much in the way of good health food... but still.. the prices of these big chains would seem hard to match.

I assume this is a money thing, not a barter type thing... in which case, I don't see how that is particularly useful for living a self sufficient lifestyle, since a key component to self sufficiency involves trying to get away from having to pay for things, and simply growing/making it yourself and then either using it yourself, or bartering it.

Food co-ops seem like a "multi-level marketing" type deal... sort of like Amway.  Not that their is anything wrong with multi-level marketing in my opinion... I don't know, I'm a "newb" to this self sufficiency stuff... so just asking....

[jaqeboy]

They have a .pdf catalog that gets revised each month. It's only available once you logon as a member. PM me your preferred email address and I'll send you the .pdf.

Thank you for the explanation, dear sir.





While I'm at it.... I might as well ask, do you know if UNFI has a master catalog online of their stuff (like in pdf format, or whatever)?   I looked at the site, but a catalog was not readily apparent.

Thinking this might possibly be interesting for future reference, if I could get an idea of what they are selling, etc...

[jaqeboy]

Got the okay to have the next workshop/training meeting at Liberty Books in Concord. We're not too far off from having a sufficient number of people to buy together as our own new buying club. Join in! I'll announce the date of the meeting soon.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I encourage anyone attending  meetings at Liberty Books to buy something while you're there.

[jaqeboy]

I encourage anyone attending  meetings at Liberty Books to buy something while you're there.

Right! That's the general idea - Jim is welcoming to folks having meetings in the store (with the idea that it'll encourage you to do your book-shopping there, of course).

[Raineyrocks]

I went to the Co-op in Hanover or Lebanon, (can't remember), this past weekend and it was expensive.   

I asked for some membership literature but it was very confusing so I asked the cashier if being a member meant that my bill would've been less.  She mumbled something like, no but you might get money back at the end of the season.   Did I hear her right?  Does that make sense?

Serves me right for hitting the bong before going to a damn new place/experience. 

[BillKauffman]

no but you might get money back at the end of the season.   Did I hear her right?  Does that make sense?

I was a member/owner for 5 years at that store and I would get a dividend back at the end of the year based on my purchases...as I do for car/house insurance from Amica - a mutualist insurance company.

[Raineyrocks]

no but you might get money back at the end of the season.   Did I hear her right?  Does that make sense?

I was a member/owner for 5 years at that store and I would get a dividend back at the end of the year based on my purchases...as I do for car/house insurance from Amica - a mutualist insurance company.

Oh, I see it's based on your purchases, thanks!     

[KBCraig]

Being a co-op member is the same as being a stockholder. Co-ops are nominally non-profit; any profits that aren't funneled back into the business are distributed among the members, just like stock dividends.

Just like "the Farm Co-op" we know around here, which is the Southern Farmers Association. Or Farm Bureau insurance.

[jaqeboy]

The Hanover/Lebanon Co-op (forgot the actual name) has several locations. It's probably high, because it's natural foods.

We're in the process of starting a new co-op here. I have a list of about 50 people who will get the initial invite to a start-up business meeting at Liberty Books in Concord - details to follow. Write if you'd like to be added to the email list: co-op@AltExpo.org.

PS: We just had a new mover to Derry yesterday who has extensive co-op experience back in her home state (sent her an email).

I think co-op'ing will be a huge benefit to Porcs. Firstly, it's a learning experience on how to self-govern. It's not actually easy, so some of the sessions will be about the decision-making process itself and the attendant communications issues. The people side is a lot harder than the business side, but well worth learning improvements to that side.

Then, there's the issue of getting lower prices for natural foods. Our co-op should be less expensive than the co-op markets, since we won't have brick and mortar costs (at least at first).

[jaqeboy]

59 on the list and counting, and the new mover is offering to help by sharing her extensive experience with everyone.

In co-oping tradition, I'm asking one of the interested peeps to take on the task of scheduling the first meeting at Liberty Books.

I'll create a page on the AltExpo site that'll lay out any other details.

[jaqeboy]

Wow, talked to Michelle from Michigan just now and she is a serious co-oper - she's been with a co-op that's been around for 40 years and she's been with it for 15 years. They consistently ordered $10,000 per order and got a 15% discount off the UNFI catalog prices! She's going to help set the agenda for our first meeting and give us lots of tips to make it really work well. I'm really looking forward to this.

[jaqeboy]

I've set up a temporary web page with info about the newly-forming co-operative here: http://altexpo.org/co-op

It's not ready for prime-time, but I wanted to get something out there. I'll update it with meeting info, etc. as that develops. There is an area below the article for comments, which could include suggestions for a name, items to carry, etc.

[jaqeboy]

We've set a date/time/place for an organizing meeting for the new co-op and announced it at the Merrimack Valley Porcupines meeting this past Saturday:

Thursday
April 23, 2009 (save the date)
Concord, New-Hampshire

Be sure to write us at co-op@AltExpo.org to be added to the invitation list. We will mail out the suggested agenda as that has developed when we get nearer to the meeting date.

Be sure to review the information on the temporary site: http://altexpo.org/co-op and post your suggestions in the comments area at the bottom for agenda items, products to consider, etc. We'll post some documents there, as well, that will be relevant to the organizing meeting.