Grass Roots Cooperative Warehouse

Greetings, Friends of Democracy!

If you have come to this page on purpose, chances are very good that you are
either an employee-owner or a member-owner of a natural foods co-operative
(store or buying club), or you work for one of the many non-profit organizations
designed to support co-operatives.

If I’m right, then THANK YOU for everything you do to preserve and protect this
vitally important bastion of community-based enterprise! And if the Grass Roots
idea ever grows into a viable alternative for regional distribution, I promise that its
sole purpose for existing will be to SERVE YOU.

We all know the basic issue here: through predatory business practices and preferential treatment of elite customers, United
Natural Foods, Inc. has come to monopolize the distribution of natural foods in most areas of the country, including the
Northeast. Concurrently, corporate retailers operating under the same business philosophy (I won’t mention any names,
instead I’ll just refer to them as “Food Holes”) have spread by leaps and bounds –and why not? They enjoy exclusive pricing
privileges that their competitors will never have.

Furthermore, not being content to merely enjoy their piece of the

growing natural foods pie,

the Food Holes have actively sought to

eliminate the competition from co-operatives in

areas where they

want to dominate the market.

I have heard so many people bemoan the loss of Northeast

Cooperative over the past three

years, just as folks in the Midwest

surely mourn for FORC and Blooming Prairie, and the Far

West for

Mountain People’s. I understand and I surely empathize…but there

is an aura of

inevitability in most people’s reaction that I

don’t

understand. As someone who was there

to see just the very tail end

of the swallowing-up process of Northeast into UNFI, all the

information I’ve gathered suggests that NEC’s demise was the result

of business decisions

that were

not

inevitable, decisions that did not

have to be made the way they were.

In short, NEC (and probably the other co-op distributors) balked on adhering to their core values, the whole reason they were
formed in the first place.

The result has been a fundamental shift in the ethic of the wholesale marketplace of our region. Basically, I think no one in
this region really cares anymore about who is delivering their products, therefore the best bottom line price wins out. On
strictly bottom-line terms, a co-op is not going to look good to retail buyers. Democracies are complicated, even messy
sometimes; dictatorships are simple. Of course, UNFI will always be able to purchase and sell nationally distributed goods
more cheaply and efficiently than a regional co-operative –and Mussolini made the trains run on time….

What we have now in the Northeast, therefore, is a wholesale natural foods market where me-first, capitalistic greed –the
fuel of fascism—is running uncontested in the election for control over our retailers’ spending decisions, with nary a
democratic, community-oriented voice in opposition. If the retailers continue to make that choice en masse, how long before
their customers –sensing less about their co-op retailer that is unique-- do the same???

I want to change this scenario on every possible level. I want the member-owners and employee-owners of co-ops, members
of buying club co-ops (don't forget them) and the decision-makers at independent retailers to CARE about who they're doing
business with. And the only way to do that is to care about them, to adhere to our common values and not waver from them.

So, we look at the current situation, the dominance of the corporate mentality over the keystone aspect of our business, and
we say, “What can we do about it?”

Well….I say we can do what co-ops have always done: we can gather together and discuss the issues; we can talk about the
fundamental values we want to uphold in the marketplace; we can establish a democratic system to implement and practice
those values; and we can get out there and work our tails off to see those values come to fruition, in the name of Community
and the spirit of Integrity. In other words, WE CAN DO IT OURSELVES!

INSIDE the GRASS ROOTS COOP website

Core Values: This page will list and describe some of the essential values I personally
would like to see a new co-operative warehouse/distributor bring back to the natural
foods wholesale market in the Northeast. It will hopefully fuel a lot of discussion,
and of course it will be edited/added to as new suggestions come in from the co-op
community. (A link will be created here when the page is ready to be viewed, and
that applies to other pages in this section.)

Hot Topics: This will be the primary "meeting place" for discussion of key ideas to help GRCW evolve into a viable
enterprise. So much of my current concept has been shaped by the few initial responses to my first public inquiry, and I'm
encouraged to think that this will continue through this forum.

Links: A veritable organic cornucopia of links here, to everything from co-op/natural foods directories to co-op-friendly
organizations to news-and-resources sites to stuff that's just plain fun.

There will also soon be a flyer that anyone can print and post in their local co-op, market, coffee house, telephone pole, etc.
directing folks to this site. Wh'-hoo!

If all this excites you, very good...keep a close eye on this site, and please, contribute whatever thoughts or advice you might
have.

Email: grassrootscoop@foow.org

Thank you so much for your time, and I hope to hear from you! Please enjoy these humble offerings of hope for democratic
enterprise and a sustainable natural foods network in this wonderful corner of the world.

Remember, WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAIN STORES!!!!

GRCW is a proud member of the Biodiesel Alliance, "a diverse coalition of organizations, agencies and businesses from
across the nation who find common ground in their support for biodiesel fuel."

a Fish Out of Water Production

e-published by One No One Designs, 120 Washington

Avenue, Suite A, Collingswood, NJ 08108