food co-op

A friend found a restaurant supply store and together we set up a food co-op for interested people. It's mainly for people from church, but anyone is welcome. We were amazed by how easy it was for us to be restaurant level purchasers. The savings are amazing. We're saving about 50% on most items. Now they don't have everything we might want, but what they have is really a good deal. Example-- Gheridelli (sp?) brand chocolate chips for $1.20 a pound. The cheapest Aldi's chips (which aren't near as good) are $1.99 a pound! Spinach was $2 for 24 boxes (yes, you read that correctly, about 10 cents a box). The idea is for me to buy in bulk and portion things out so people can buy reasonable amounts off of me. I guess I'm acting as the middle man. This is pretty cool. We decided to put in an order once a month so none of us feel overwhelmed by all this. A big order means they drive it over here and we don't even have to drive downtown and pick it up. Huge plus.