Does anyone belong to, or know of a food co-op in Ohio, Columbus area would be nice. If you belong to one tell us about it. Thanks Dave

-- Dave in Ohio (dr43147@yahoo.com), February 04, 2002

Answers

There is a big co-op right in Columbus that I belong to out here as well, they are Northeast Cooperatives dba FORC, 1-888-936-9648, they put out a monthly catalog of all types of food and non food items, lots of organic products as well. No cost to join.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), February 04, 2002.

Here is a nice link of co-ops http://www.columbia.edu/~jw157/food.coop.html

-- Gary in Ohio (gws@columbus.rr.com), February 04, 2002.

What exactly is a food co-op? We have a Costco where things are supposedly cheaper if you buy more in quantity. It's like a Sam's or some places have a B.J.'s wholesale etc. It's hard to shop these places if you don't have alot of money to put out all at once and you really need quite a bit of space to store your stuff too. Well thanks for your help.

Blessings,

-- Greenthumbelina (sck8107@aol.com), February 04, 2002.

Hi Greenthumbelina!

Costco IS cheaper for some things (mainly nonfood items like TP, paper towels, etc., but they sell a LOT of convenience and junk food (giant bags of Doritos, large packages of sugared cereal, etc.), and to save money, stay away from that stuff. They have some clothes and bestseller books are like 25% or so off cover price. Merchandise varies from store to store, for example could get flavored coffee beans in CA, but not in OR when visiting relatives....

Coffee beans are MUCH cheaper at Costco than other places. They do have meat and produce, but except for certain cuts of meat, you're better off going to your local supermarket, meat market, or farmer's market. The dairy case is the same way, we always do better waiting for BOGO (buy one get one) at our local store for the milk and stocking up (freezing it), although I do like Costco's square milk jugs better, storage-wise. The house brand (Kirkland) on the nonfood items is generally of good quality.

The best way to go is to know your local prices on the things you regularly buy per ounce. Take a calculator with you, so you can compare at Costco--they don't often post unit pricing. Also stick to your list, it is easy to get carried away by the larger sizes and the cheaper prices (though not always, you do need to check).

Costco is now $45 per year to join, although they finally got smart and accept a "real" credit card now (American Express) for payment, which rebates a very small amount back to you every year. I say "real" because Discover (which they used to take) is not accepted everywhere, and their own in-house credit card was only good at Costco.

The nice thing about the AMEX card is that you can also use it other places, and it comes with the membership if you apply for it. I would never "pay" to have a credit card, and this one is also a backup in case your main card gets messed up or lost. Much nicer than having to drag the checkbook with you every time you went!

One of the nicknames for Costco is the $300 club, because most people can't get out of there for less than that, lol.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), February 04, 2002.

I use one .. Blooming Prairie. It is in Iowa City and I think they have one in Minnesota. I like it because you can buy alot of organically grown stuff through them. The organic stuff is more expensive, but I think its worth it. You can also buy bulk, usually by the case, I like that alot too.

-- Sher in se Iowa (riverdobbers@webtv.net), February 04, 2002.

Hi Dave..

I don't know of any coops in Ohio, but I thought I'd answer Greenthumbilina's questions [and maybe give you some hints in the process].

Coops are basically food buying clubs. They come in many varieties.

One kind is a bricks and mortar type that anybody can go to. You can become a member of these for a yearly fee and you get a bit of a discount and usually participation and voting rights concerning the running of the enterprise.

There are also small coops that are groups of people who order the food monthly, accept the deliveries, break down the individual orders, etc. These require a great amount of commitment by the participants. There are delivery minimums[$], members need to be there to help, refrigeration might be necessary in warm months, etc..

There are also variants on these. I belong to a food club. I pay ten dollars twice a month and get vast quantities of food. But, I don't get to choose. The people who run it make very good and frugal choices. What I don't want, I give away. And it's still worth it.

Also there is the Share program. It was started to promote community involvement and it requires two hours of volunteering per month in your community to participate. In New England, US it's called Serve. And I've provided the URL. I have a neighbor who drives a visually impaired neighbor around on errands. This qualifies as her volunteer requirement.

http://www.servenewengland.org/about.htm

All these things are available within a half hour of my small community. Many coops use Associated [somebody posted about them], many also use Northeast Coops. Northeast has a URL too. If anybody wants it and can't find it, I'll be glad to post it.

HTH

PC

-- pc (pc@?.com), February 04, 2002.

Hi Dave... I agree with Annie. Try Federation of Ohio River Cooperatives (FORC) in Columbus. There are also many "buying clubs" around Ohio that buy directly from FORC. I belong to one that orders once a month (usually the first Monday) and picks up the order the following Friday. Prices are cheaper if you can find a group to order with and also you have other people to split items with. I mean, who needs a 50 pound bag of nutritional yeast? We get a current catalog with our orders that have thousands of items in them. We (our family) always order cheeses, rice, beans, flour and soy milk from them. They have organic items, friendly service and wonderful products. I got 10 pounds of White Mushrooms ordered to be delivered this Friday. I'm canning mushrooms this weekend! Good Luck!

-- Harmony (harmonyfarm57@hotmail.com), February 04, 2002.