Supermarkets? No, thanks

It's a bizarre sight: rows of polished church pews, each dotted with neat piles of fruit or veg. Shoppers scoop heaps into baskets, trolleys, or crumpled plastic bags saved from previous trips to Tesco.

 

This is a weekly foodshop, cooperative style - a model of food distribution where neighbours work together to take control of their local supply hain. The system is simple: find a supplier, buy in bulk and collectively cover the costs.

 

Smaller co-ops will only buy what participants have ordered, whereas larger organisations operate as markets or even set up their own stores. Some of those community co-ops invite their customers to become members. You pay a nominal fee to be able to shop from it, or have a say in how it is run. There are also workers co-ops, which are often much larger organisations, where paid employees share all key business decisions.

 

The concept, of course, is far from new, but it's proving increasingly popular.

 

"Interest is definitely growing," says John Atherton of Co-operatives UK, an organisation that supports cooperative enterprise across Britain.

 

"We're seeing rising numbers of buying groups and community shops. It's a trend that is set to continue."

 

The motivations are many: fears about food security; food inflation, the power of supermarkets, the bruised image of capitalism and a lost sense of community.

 

Across Britain, food co-ops are sprouting up in school halls, community centres, farm sheds or even your neighbour's front room - anywhere, in fact, where rent is free.

 

"I use the term 'trust trading'," says Dan Dempsey, manager of a project establishing food co-ops in Wales. In essence, he says, it's about a return to traditional routes of trade: reconnecting farmers with communities, and countryside to cities; paying a fair price and avoid markups by middlemen.

 

With strong backing from the Welsh assembly, his team has helped to launch 180 food co-ops in the last three years, supplying 6,000 families and turning over around 1.112,000 EUR.

"We're cracking the system," he says. "Supermarkets don't have to dominate."