How The Coop Works
June 30th 2009
Members decide upon the basic rules and definitions. Such as what local means, and whether or not a particular vendor will be accepted.
Members may eventually need to pay dues, in return for which there will eventually be a place we can gather and call our own. This can be a boon to the neighborhood in that it fosters community action and supports mom and pop entrepreneurial ventures into the market. We can do this through micro-loans and by providing workshops and space to operate. All while ensuring the highest quality affordable local food.
Coops function in a variety of ways all democratically decided by the membership. The basic goal is to reduce the cost of our food by using a non-profit model rather than the corporate model. This allows for funds to function without the high price of top heavy management pulling down 6 and 7 figure salaries. In the coop model members log on so many hours or pay a yearly membership fee in order to get the member discount. Non-members pay regular price which is best kept competetitive with other local grocery stores in the area. Many coops creat value added products that can be sold at a profit. The holy grail would be a U.S.D.A. certified kitchen that we could use to create those value added products.
Other benefits include having a website basically designed to sell and an active marketing team always looking for new customers.
We have yet to have our first meeting and are currently in our networking stage. Please call, email, or sign up using our form
