food co ops

[Guest guest]

I've been reading all of the posts about great places to live, and I feel

stupid, but I don't know what a food co op is! What are they? How do you

join? Anyone know of what's available in the Baltimore area?

Sharon

[Guest guest]

On Tue, 10 Apr 2001 Irisbeetle wrote:

 

> I've been reading all of the posts about great places to live, and I feel

> stupid, but I don't know what a food co op is! What are they? How do you

> join? Anyone know of what's available in the Baltimore area?

> Sharon

 

I think Caroline did a good job of explaining what a co-op is (a

cooperative buying group), so I won't cover that. You can find a listing

of food co-ops at the Cooperative Grocer's Co-op Directory

<www.cooperativegrocer.com/coopdir.html>. I didn't see any listings for

Baltimore but there are a good number in other places in Maryland. I'm

not sure how far away any of these would be for you.

 

The procedures for joining vary from co-op to co-op. The best way to find

out how to join is to walk in (or call) and ask. At the co-op I belong

to, each share costs $10 and 4 shares must be bought in a year for full

membership priveleges. In exchange I get a 5% discount on all purchases,

a 15% discount on purchases of a full case of any product, and a vote in

how the co-op is run. I also have the option of working at the co-op in

exchange for credit toward purchases. The store is set-up like a small

grocery store and many people who are not members also shop there. Other

co-ops may work differently.

 

----

Patricia Bullington-McGuire <patricia

 

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered

three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the

purely hypothetical. They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each

nonexisted in an entirely different way ...

-- Stanislaw Lem, " Cyberiad "