Rainbow Grocery began as a bulk food-buying program by followers of Guru Maharaji (Prem Pal Rawat), a spiritual teacher San Francisco in the early 1970s; it quickly became a secular project. The buying program was coordinated by an ashram member who worked with the People's Common Operating Warehouse of San Francisco, a political project using food distribution as a form of community organizing and political education. The People's Warehouse was striving to build a “People’s Food System,” including a network of small community food stores throughout San Francisco.[3]
In the summer 1975, Rainbow Grocery opened a storefront on 16th Street in the Mission District of San Francisco. At this time, the People's Food System already had two stores in San Francisco: Seeds of Life, in the lower Mission District, and Noe Valley Community Store. The ashram members who organized the opening of Rainbow Grocery did so largely by studying and copying the operations of the Noe Valley store. Rainbow Grocery opened exclusively reliant on volunteer labor. After a first few months, there was enough income to pay the project's two most active workers. As the store became increasingly successful, it was able to bring more workers on as paid staff, although people were generally not brought on to payroll until after several months of consistent volunteering. As the staff at Rainbow grew larger, the need for more defined organizational relationships also increased.[citation needed]
For the purpose of simplicity, Rainbow was started under the legal ownership of two of its founders. Though the store operated collectively, this meant that these two people were responsible for reporting Rainbow's operations on their tax forms and were responsible for any debts or lawsuits. In 1976, ownership was transferred to a nonprofit corporation. When incorporating, Rainbow simply adapted the corporate documents of the People's Warehouse, which included the Warehouse's statement of six political principles underlying the People's Food System. Including the six principles was done, in part, as an attempt to appease people at the Warehouse's who thought Rainbow was not political enough. Adapting the Warehouse's incorporation documents also simplified the legal work of incorporating. Unfortunately, the Warehouse's legal model was not very appropriate or functional. The Warehouse had written up their incorporation documents with the hopes of obtaining tax-exempt charitable status, which they were unable to do. While Rainbow's workers already knew Rainbow Grocery would not qualify as a tax-exempt charity, they still incorporated using the nonprofit model of the Warehouse.[citation needed]
Rainbow started generating financial surpluses soon after incorporating as a nonprofit. In order to avoid generating a taxable profit, Rainbow distributed its financial surplus by increasing worker compensation and investing in expansion. Rainbow's first substantial expansion, in 1978, was the opening of a general store (selling vitamins, dry goods, housewares, books, clothing etc.). It was located a few doors down from the grocery store. The general store initially ran at a considerable loss and became a significant financial drain on the grocery store. This situation eventually reversed and the general store became a strong support to the financial health of Rainbow Grocery.[citation needed]
Meanwhile, the People's Food System was becoming increasingly politicized and polarized. The various food collectives had been meeting in the system's Common Operating Warehouse. The group of representatives meeting was called the “representative body” or RB. The members of the RB were torn between paying attention to food politics and collective food stores as a revolutionary act versus using the energy of the Food System to participate in the broader counterculture movement of the time. In addition, the adoption of a representative democracy was somewhat at odds with the collective/consensus process of many of the stores. Finally, the RB elected a steering committee to organize and facilitate its regular meetings. This committee in turn drafted a “Principles of Unity” statement to which member stores had to ascribe in order to they might retain their membership in the People's Food System. At this point, the workers of the Rainbow Grocery Collective opted to go it on their own, preferring to focus on the issue of food and food access as right livelihood. It turns out that this decision was a smart one. The Warehouse increasingly became embroiled in political infighting which took on a violent character when, as part of its political program, the Warehouse began actively recruiting recently released prisoners for its workers. Unfortunately it recruited members of rival gangs, which engaged in a gunfight at the warehouse. The final blow to the Warehouse came in 1981 when a flood destroyed much of its stock.[3]
In the next few years, Rainbow Grocery continued to grow. They outgrew the confines of the 2,000 square foot storefront on 16th Street. In 1983, Rainbow moved to a 9,000 square foot space on 15th and Mission. Business increased dramatically in the first year at the new location.[3] With this growth, workers were able to give themselves their first substantial raise and obtain group health insurance. Another advantage of the move was that it allowed the Grocery and General Store divisions to share the same building, which promoted cohesion. Despite being under the same roof for the first time, each division retained its own cash register system, policies and organizational structure. There were even rules restricting workers from being in both collectives at the same time. People got around those rules, of course, but there was little inter-divisional (and even less interdepartmental) working in this period. Another significant organizational development made in preparation for the move was creation of a board of directors elected from within the membership, who met regularly beginning in 1982. Prior to 1982, all decisions were made in “Joint Meetings” of all workers from the Grocery and General Store divisions.[citation needed]
It was not long before the Mission Street store outgrew itself. Even by 1988, customers and workers were literally climbing over each other to get to products in the store. As Rainbow approached the end of its 10-year lease, it was more and more apparent that the space at Mission and 15th was not adequate. When overcrowding at the Mission & 15th location inspired Rainbow to look again for a larger space, the collective acted to re-form as a cooperative corporation (a legal form that did not exist in 1976 when Rainbow originally incorporated). Then in 1992 the store decided to begin looking for a new space. It was four years in the making: locating a space, negotiating a sale, coming up with a design, and finishing construction.[citation needed]
One major factor that helped Rainbow in its move to Folsom Street location was the ability to get a bank loan with backing from the city of San Francisco. The city guaranteed the bank loan in part because Rainbow would be creating jobs and because Rainbow was moving into a then economically depressed neighborhood, an Enterprise Zone designated for economic development funding. The city also lent Rainbow $400,000 in addition to backing the bank loan.[citation needed]
In order to carry off the planning and growth involved in this move, Rainbow undertook further organizational refinement. As part of the move, the Grocery and General Store divisions were dissolved and Rainbow divided into Departments as its basic units; Joint Meetings between the divisions were replaced by Membership Meetings for all worker/owners. The Membership Meeting created an elected Storewide Steering Committee to help coordinate the Departments and overall day-to-day operations, hoping to free the board of directors to focus on the larger financial/legal issues and long-term planning.[citation needed]
All the planning and hard work came to fruition with the opening at 1745 Folsom Street on April 25, 1996. As with the previous move, sales skyrocketed. The financial success allowed an increase in wages and benefits as well as “patronage” distributions to worker/owners in keeping with the new cooperative legal structure. The work force, hovering around 80-100 workers in the final years at Mission Street, doubled in the years following the move.[citation needed]
In 2023, Moby, the famous musician and animal rights activist, stated that he goes to Rainbow Grocery every time he visits San Francisco since 1990. He said he loves it because " it is a gigantic workers' collective co-op health food store that could only exist in the Bay Area."[4]
Jewel-Osco is a regional supermarket chain in the Chicago metropolitan area, headquartered in Itasca, a western suburb. In 2007, the company had 188 stores across northern, central, and western Illinois; eastern Iowa; and portions of northwest Indiana. Jewel-Osco has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Boise-based Albertsons since 1999. The company originally started as a door-to-door coffee delivery service before it expanded into delivering non-perishable groceries and later into grocery stores, and supermarkets. Prior to its 1984 acquisition by American Stores, Jewel evolved into a large multi-state holding company that operated several supermarket chains and other non-food retail chain stores located from coast to coast and had operated under several different brand names.
A cooperative is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise". Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. They differ from collectives in that they are generally built from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down. Cooperatives may include:
A grocery store (AE), grocery shop (BE) or simply grocery is a foodservice retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries. In the UK, shops that sell food are distinguished as grocers or grocery shops (though in everyday use, people usually use either the term "supermarket" or a "corner shop".
Safeway, Inc. is an American supermarket chain. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy, as well as Starbucks coffee shops and fuel centers. It is a subsidiary of Albertsons after being acquired by private equity investors led by Cerberus Capital Management in January 2015. Safeway's primary base of operations is in the Western United States with some stores located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern Seaboard. The subsidiary is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.
Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc. (AWG) is the United States's largest cooperative food wholesaler to independently owned supermarkets and grocery stores. It serves more than 4,000 locations in 36 states and from 8 full-line wholesale divisions. The consolidated run-rate sales for AWG is close to $10 billion. In addition to its cooperative wholesale operations, the company also operates subsidiary companies which provide certain real estate and supermarket development services, digital marketing services, and is a wholesale supply provider of health and beauty care, general merchandise, specialty/international foods and pharmaceutical supplies. It was founded in 1924 as Associated Grocers of Kansas City and was based in Kansas City, Missouri before moving to Kansas City, Kansas. Associated Wholesale Grocers distributes four private-label brands of grocery products, Best Choice, Clearly Organic, Always Save, and Superior Selections along with IGA.
The Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley, California, comprises two worker-owned-and-operated businesses: a cheese shop/bakery commonly referred to as "The Cheese Board" and a pizzeria known as "Cheese Board Pizza". Along with Peet's Coffee, the Cheese Board is known for its role in starting the North Shattuck neighborhood of Berkeley on its way to becoming famous as a culinary destination: the "Gourmet Ghetto". The bakery brought the French baguette into vogue for Berkeley consumers, and helped spark a revolution in artisan bread.
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Many cooperatives, however, do have a degree of profit orientation. Just like other corporations, some cooperatives issue dividends to owners based on a share of total net profit or earnings ; or based on a percentage of the total amount of purchases made by the owner. Regardless of whether they issue a dividend or not, most consumers’ cooperatives will offer owners discounts and preferential access to goods and services.
The Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives is a network of worker cooperatives dedicated to building workplace democracy in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Save Mart Companies is an American grocery store operator founded and headquartered in Modesto, California. It owns and operates stores under the Save Mart, Lucky, and FoodMaxx brands. The stores are located in northern and central California and northern Nevada. Private equity firm Kingswood Capital Management owns the company.
Delchamps was a chain of supermarkets along the central Gulf Coast of the United States, headquartered in Mobile, Alabama. At the time of its acquisition in 1997, the company had 118 supermarkets in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and its stock was public traded on NASDAQ under DLCH.
The O., short for "the Organization", also known as the C.O. or Coop Organization, was a radical political cadre organization that grew out of the Twin Cities New Left movement in the 1970s. It was established in 1974 by Theophilus Smith, a former staff member of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Consumers' Cooperative of Berkeley, informally known as the Berkeley Co-op, or simply Co-op, was a consumers' cooperative based in Berkeley, California, which operated from 1939 to 1988, when it collapsed due to internal governance disputes and bankruptcy. During its height, it was the largest cooperative of its kind in North America, with over 100,000 members, and its collapse has provoked intense discussion over how food cooperatives should be operated.
New Pioneer Food Co-op, commonly shortened to New Pi, is a locally owned food cooperative based in Iowa City, Iowa. This city also serves as the headquarters of the National Cooperative Grocers Association. New Pioneer has stores in Iowa City, Coralville, and Cedar Rapids as well as a production hub in North Liberty, Iowa.
The Berkeley Student Food Collective (BSFC) is a collectively-operated nonprofit grocery market founded by students of the University of California, Berkeley. The 650-square-foot storefront is located across the street from the university, on Bancroft Way.
Eisner Food Stores was a chain of supermarkets in Illinois and Indiana. It was acquired by The Jewel Companies, Inc. in 1957. The Eisner stores were rebranded as Jewel in 1985.
The Seward Community Cafe is a collectively run cooperative restaurant in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, notable for being the oldest worker-run restaurant in the United States. Since its founding, the cafe has been owned and managed by a worker-owner collective of about 10-16 people, all of whom start at the same wage and are given the option of becoming a co-owner within six months of starting work. Management is structured in a non-hierarchical manner, and decisions are made by consensus.
Amazon Go is a chain of convenience stores in the United States and the United Kingdom, operated by the online retailer Amazon. The stores are cashierless, thus partially automated, with customers having the ability to purchase products without being checked out by a cashier or using a self-checkout station. As of 2023, there are 43 open and announced store locations in Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, London and New York City.
District Grocery Stores (DGS) was a cooperative of small single-room grocery stores in Washington, DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia. It operated from 1921 to 1972. The goal was to leverage the volume of purchasing power of the cooperative to negotiate better prices from wholesalers and therefore improve their competitiveness. The cooperative started with 20 members and grew to 300 members at its peak, most of whom were Jewish immigrant families from Europe. The stores were located across the Washington metropolitan area.
The Minnesota Food Cooperative Wars took place in 1975-1976 time period and revolved around the many food cooperatives in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. Initially, the disputes and confrontations within the Twin Cities Cooperative movement were not referred to as "Wars", but the nomenclature developed in part as a result of the title of a documentary made decades later.
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