Vickie Gray 🍁
@graymattergrcltd@infosec.exchange
@mark@canuck.social Having been the buyer for groceries at that co-op, I can promise that we did our best to keep prices for milk, bread, eggs, veg, and more as low as possible, usually selling below cost, by increasing margins on things like high-end cookies, pop, and other things the wealthy bought. We sourced locally - local farms on the island got first dibs in the veg aisle - because we actively supported food sustainability. But that meant food wasn’t always “pretty” like it was in big box stores, we didn’t have strawberries in January, and people had bought in to the all food all the time mantra. We had to pay for trucking and ferry costs to get food to the island. We hired local people and paid them a living wage. We gave away past-sell-by food quietly at the end of the day to a group who made meals for people in poverty. We provided on-site services that people would otherwise have to travel hours to get, paying for ferry rides and transportation. I personally managed bulk buying orders for anyone who asked for seasonal produce, case lots, meat, cheese, and more, without requiring pre-payment. As the weekly grocery buyer, I had to work pricing so the cost of food families bought was consistent, and lower than big box stores, so I adjusted prices for other things on an item-by-item basis. The members were my neighbours and friends. A very few of them were honestly extremely difficult, but that didn’t matter. Everyone had a chance at fair, sustainable food, at prices they could live with on an island with 50% poverty.
Vickie Gray 🍁@graymattergrcltd@infosec.exchange
@mark@canuck.social So, I guess the insider’s view of the paradox you describe is that society has bought in to the idea that “prices” are the only measure of fairness, while the methods of lowering prices are justified by any means as long as “working class” people get what they want without ever having to think about the system that made that happen. In that system, ya, co-ops are a little more expensive.
If lower prices for “working people” is the goal, then yes, let’s make that happen by paying store, transportation, factory and farm workers poverty wages with no benefits, buying from agribusinesses that contribute to climate change through “go big or go home” monocultures kept growing using pesticides and GMO seed, and building monopolies that remove all selling choice from producers because no one else is left to sell to so whatever price the big box stores pay is what you get.
