re: racism. since food stamps are issued based on income alone, and not race, not accepting food stamps can in no way shape or form be called racism. please people..

It seems to me that the canned goods probably hit a similar price point to Whole Foods. The commodities (ie bulk foods), though, are significantly cheaper, especially if you can convince a lot of people to go in on an order so that you can order in 25 or even 50 pound increments.

I just got some folks to go in on my flour order with me, for example, and was able to get good, high quality flour (not organic but still really good) for 51 cents per pound, so $5.10 for 10 pounds of flour–pretty cheap, I think!

So it definitely depends on what you’re buying.

The benefit to me is being able to really think about what I want to buy and putting my order together collectively with my club members rather than getting into the grocery store and losing sight of what I really wanted and ending up with a pile of things that I didn’t mean to get. By pooling orders, I do sometimes end up with things that I wouldn’t normally have bought on my own but some of these end up being things that I’ve then gone on to incorporate into my regular shopping list (one example: agave nectar). So it’s a different way of exploring food options and, I think, more social.

I have used the buying club now for a couple of years, and to tell you the truth you have to shop it just like you would shop anything. If you do a lot of price comparisons to decide what to purchase when you shop a store, then you should do that with this as well. Some items are cheaper, some are not, just like any other store.

To be honest though almost no one shops at whole foods for the price And one advantage that the Buying Club catalog has is that a lot of products are available in bulk. In fact there is a much larger selection of bulk items in the buying club catalog than are available anywhere in town. And when you purchase bulk items, that is where you see a real savings.

Additionally, the larger the club order, the large a discount you will see on your invoice. The club gets a volume discount from the warehouse that ranges from 2-5% depending on the size of the total club order, so your final price goes down there as well.

I usually get a lot of my perishables from the farmers markets, and I order my staples every month through the Buying Club, and then my trips to groceries are very hassle free and usually only for a couple of things, so I use a hand basket instead of a clumsy cart. Strangely enough, being in the Buying Club has made my trips to regular groceries much more pleasant.

And on a personal level, I like the buying club because it represents an alternative, something the grocery scene here in NOLA truly lacks. And I like meeting folks in the club, it has a fun social aspect to it as well.

Send an e-mail to info@nolafoodcoop.org to be added to the Buying Club list. You will then be able to access our club’s ordering website where you can see a full list of available items. It’s pretty much everything you could get at a natural foods grocery except for fresh produce (we’re working on that one!). There is no cost to join the Buying Club itself, although all members are expected to work one shift every six months. We do recommend that Buying Club members consider becoming Founding Members of the Food Cooperative itself, to help support our efforts to open a storefront in New Orleans. Membership in the co-op is a $100 equity payment to become part-owner of the store.

Rachel–

It is our intention that the grocery storefront will take food stamps when we are finally able to open it. In order to make full participation in this effort to open a cooperative storefront possible, we are offering a $25 membership level to those for whom the $100 level would represent a financial hardship. We are not able to allow for the use of food stamps for the Buying Club itself, unfortunately.

Best,
AmyGeorge
NOFC Information

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