| The Food Co-op : About Us :
Our Buying Policies
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OUR BUYING POLICIES
Products We Choose to Carry (1984)
Our Product Selection Guidelines are an extension of our mission and values. These product guidelines are offered to provide a framework in which the Co-op ideals of good nutrition, respect for the environment, fostering of local production, workplace democracy, and co-operative member ownership will be translated into the selection of goods for the store. The Co-op's purpose of providing a broad range of pure, whole, staple foods and other essential items at a reasonable price is the base upon which these guidelines rest.
We promote the following standards:
- Whole foods with minimal processing.
- Organically grown, whenever feasible.
- Foods containing artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or other potentially harmful additives will be avoided.
- Political Concerns: The Food Co-op recognizes the political implications of its selection of products and suppliers.
- Consumer Education: We accept the responsibility of providing educational information to our customers as it relates to these concerns and the products we sell, and in certain instances, as it relates to products we may refuse to sell.
- We support the co-op movement: The Co-op will therefore give preference to products produced and distributed in non-exploitive labor situations.
- Commitment to Community: We will also give preference to those products grown or produced by small scale enterprises, and to those grown or produced locally and in the Puget Sound Region.
- Environmental Concerns: Our policy is to minimize the negative environmental effects pertaining to our choice of products; and, where there is a choice, to take the least detrimental option.
- Uncommon Availability: Without sacrificing its commitment to the marketing of basic foodstuffs, the Co-op will compliment its array of products with items chosen deliberately because of their unavailability elsewhere is eastern Jefferson County.
READ ABOUT our "Choices, Choices!" Member Forum, a conversation about the products we sell at The Food Co-op.
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