Starting a food co-op: Year 1 • Hacker News Board

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#11

Post by debacle » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:15 PM UTC

There is a local group trying to "disrupt" coops in this way: find members to shell out $$, have a steering committee, do a lot of marketing, all before the coop even has a location in mind.

Meanwhile there are actual coops (though they don't call themselves that) with skyrocketing membership who are doing, not planning, and slowly growing to encompass more than just produce. One of them now has a year-round greenhouse.

I haven't been impressed by the style of coop the author writes about. It seems like the doers are much more successful. Just this past year a new farmers market started in an urban food desert with two vendors in a church parking lot. Now they are trying to find new space because they have 20+ vendors weekly. To my knowledge, they raised zero dollars to get started.

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#12

Post by socialismisok » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

I love this! Thanks for sharing the details. The world needs more co-ops.

The US needs to make it easier to incorporate co-ops. As someone who looked into building both a software co-op and a housing co-op, getting the paperwork in order was such a larger hassle than seeing up an LLC.

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#13

Post by socialismisok » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:20 PM UTC

debacle wrote: post #11

There is a local group trying to "disrupt" coops in this way: find members to shell out $$, have a steering committee, do a lot of marketing, all before the coop even has a location in mind. Meanwhile there are actual coops (though they don't call themselves that) with skyrocketing membership who are doing, not planning, and slowly growing to encompass more than just produce. One of them now has a year-round greenhou…

Where do the "doers" get the capital to create greenhouses and raise vegetables?

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#14

Post by bombcar » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:20 PM UTC

debacle wrote: post #11

There is a local group trying to "disrupt" coops in this way: find members to shell out $$, have a steering committee, do a lot of marketing, all before the coop even has a location in mind. Meanwhile there are actual coops (though they don't call themselves that) with skyrocketing membership who are doing, not planning, and slowly growing to encompass more than just produce. One of them now has a year-round greenhou…

There's one trying to get off the ground here, and it's a similar story - it has been more than five years and nothing has actually happened except marketing whatever it is they're doing.

Meanwhile at least two different actual grocery stores have closed, and two more changed ownership; they could have bought either of them (I daresay a fundraiser would have worked) and kept them running.

Some farmer's markets are hilarious, however, in that they don't actually involve any farmers, just people buying from the same massive supply firms that feed the grocery stores and selling it in little stalls.

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#15

Post by sct202 » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:24 PM UTC

debacle wrote: post #11

There is a local group trying to "disrupt" coops in this way: find members to shell out $$, have a steering committee, do a lot of marketing, all before the coop even has a location in mind. Meanwhile there are actual coops (though they don't call themselves that) with skyrocketing membership who are doing, not planning, and slowly growing to encompass more than just produce. One of them now has a year-round greenhou…

The type of coop that is in the article will end up partnering with UNFI for sourcing of products, and will end up with worse pricing than all the other places that UNFI supplies (Whole Foods is their largest) for the same products.

The coops in my city all used the same consultants that are listed in the article and follow the exact same playbook.

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#16

Post by brnaftr361 » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:27 PM UTC

I'm kinda curious are there any protections in place to mitigate somebody (ostensibly nefarious) wresting control of the consumer-owner representatives? I know one of the aspects of Mondragon's foundation is that there is zero outside influence and all control is within the shareholders, which are exclusively workers because these sort of buyout risks have actually played out.

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#17

Post by phphphphp » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:28 PM UTC

socialismisok wrote: post #13

debacle wrote: post #11

There is a local group trying to "disrupt" coops in this way: find members to shell out $$, have a steering committee, do a lot of marketing, all before the coop even has a location in mind. Meanwhile there are actual coops (though they don't call themselves that) with skyrocketing membership who are doing, not planning, and slowly growing to encompass more than just produce. One of them now has a year-round greenhou…

Where do the "doers" get the capital to create greenhouses and raise vegetables?

Do you need to create greenhouses and raise vegetables from the start? My understanding is that a coop (like any business) is a means to an end and so you can start out by leveraging what is effectively group buying to source high quality fresh produce and then, once established, gradually iterate towards total self reliance. Does that not work for this model?

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#18

Post by twunde » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:30 PM UTC

AaronM wrote: post #4

neilv wrote: post #2

This seems to be in the Boston, Mass., area. Some related local background is that there was the Harvest Co-op chain until a few years ago: https://www.boston.com/food/food/2018/10/04/harvest-co-op-ma... There's also the Market Basket for-profit regional chain, where employees and customers successfully stood up against some family business maneuvers to force out the head, and it's once again generally well-regarded…

Vermont has a fairly successful Co-op in Burlington. https://www.citymarket.coop/

Vermont has a number of successful co-ops. https://nfca.coop/vt/ has a list of them.

Most food co-ops belong to co-op partnerships and many will cross honor memberships at other co-ops ie the Putney co-op will give you a member discount if you're a Brattleboro co-op member

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#19

Post by socialismisok » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

phphphphp wrote: post #17

socialismisok wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do the "doers" get the capital to create greenhouses and raise vegetables?

Do you need to create greenhouses and raise vegetables from the start? My understanding is that a coop (like any business) is a means to an end and so you can start out by leveraging what is effectively group buying to source high quality fresh produce and then, once established, gradually iterate towards total self reliance. Does that not work for this model?

It could, but where do you get the capital to do the group buying?

My point is that the parent is likely simply not aware of the organizing that went into creating the group of "doers" they are praising.

Re: Starting a food co-op: Year 1

#20

Post by nwsm » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 2:34 PM UTC

jpm_sd wrote: post #6

neilv wrote: post #2

This seems to be in the Boston, Mass., area. Some related local background is that there was the Harvest Co-op chain until a few years ago: https://www.boston.com/food/food/2018/10/04/harvest-co-op-ma... There's also the Market Basket for-profit regional chain, where employees and customers successfully stood up against some family business maneuvers to force out the head, and it's once again generally well-regarded…

Given that Harvest shut down "after years of financial instability", what's the strategy for this new co-op to survive? If you can't run a successful co-op in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where can you?

They are all over. There is a co-op in my college town of Fayetteville, AR. I was not a member but it's successful.