When I lived in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Buying Groups were all the rage. It was no big deal, no new idea. Is this a Maritime thing? Where are all the buying groups in Montreal hiding?
Seriously. Equiterre is doing great work hooking us all up with a CSA basket. I am currently loving my latest basket from my biodynamic farm, Ferme Cadet-Roussel. But what about my bulk grains and flours? Frigo Vert has been doing grassroots good work for years, Coop La Maison Vert has just introduced dry bulk foods to their primarily bulk cleaning products coop. As a friend recently stated: “Isn’t the Frigo pretty much like a buying group, just bigger, ’cause you are a member and you can order really big bags of stuff and reduced cost?” Maybe it is the same thing, but not for me and really, couldn’t we do more? Couldn’t we reduced fuel, transit time, packaging, heating, lighting, and basically resources in general even more? These are the things I remember about buying groups form the East Coast. Why all the covert ops here in la belle province?
In Ontario, ONFC has an entire section of their website dedicated to buying groups, which is helpful to me in my search. But so far I have found only one bulk distribution co-op in Sherbrooke, Coop d’Alentour. I haven’t figured out the logistics, although it does seem that UQAM has a groupe d’achats that is organized with Coop d’Alentour. And it’s not as local as I’d hoped in terms of transport, knowing that there are lots of distributors of organic bulk foods on or just of the island of Montreal. The only other folks that I have found and not heard back from are connected with Aliments d’ici, who are doing all kinds of good work, but mostly in French, which is great! But I am an anglophone and well….you know how it goes, for some things it’s just easier to have both languages present so that we all know what’s going on and can participate with equal enthusiasm!
So I am thinking: Who wants to start a buying group?
Is the idea of buying your local grains, flours, dried goods, oils in bulk and at cost plus transport appealing to you? Do you like the idea of only getting some perishables more infrequently from your local coop, as much as I do? If you already are part of a CSA, then I am thinking this is just the next step!
When I lived in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Buying Groups were all the rage. It was no big deal, no new idea. Is this a Maritime thing? Where are all the buying groups in Montreal hiding?
Seriously. Equiterre is doing great work hooking us all up with a CSA basket. I am currently loving my latest basket from my biodynamic farm, Ferme Cadet-Roussel. But what about my bulk grains and flours? Frigo Vert has been doing grassroots good work for years, Coop La Maison Vert has just introduced dry bulk foods to their primarily bulk cleaning products coop. As a friend recently stated: “Isn’t the Frigo pretty much like a buying group, just bigger, ’cause you are a member and you can order really big bags of stuff and reduced cost?” Maybe it is the same thing, but not for me and really, couldn’t we do more? Couldn’t we reduced fuel, transit time, packaging, heating, lighting, and basically resources in general even more? These are the things I remember about buying groups form the East Coast. Why all the covert ops here in la belle province?
In Ontario, ONFC has an entire section of their website dedicated to buying groups, which is helpful to me in my search. But so far I have found only one bulk distribution co-op in Sherbrooke, Coop d’Alentour. I haven’t figured out the logistics, although it does seem that UQAM has a groupe d’achats that is organized with Coop d’Alentour. And it’s not as local as I’d hoped in terms of transport, knowing that there are lots of distributors of organic bulk foods on or just of the island of Montreal. The only other folks that I have found and not heard back from are connected with Aliments d’ici, who are doing all kinds of good work, but mostly in French, which is great! But I am an anglophone and well….you know how it goes, for some things it’s just easier to have both languages present so that we all know what’s going on and can participate with equal enthusiasm!
So I am thinking: Who wants to start a buying group?
Is the idea of buying your local grains, flours, dried goods, oils in bulk and at cost plus transport appealing to you? Do you like the idea of only getting some perishables more infrequently from your local coop, as much as I do? If you already are part of a CSA, then I am thinking this is just the next step!
