karma co-op

karma co-op

so we've actually lived steps away from karma co-op all this time, but we've never visited until now. It was pretty much what i expected. A co-operative grocery store, is essentially a membership community run business where people take part by contributing working hours to maintain the grocery store. It gives ownership to its members.


located in the annex, the building is hidden in an alleyway but has signage and an entrance off palmerston. see map


this buildign is suprisingly large with a lot of variety of food specializing in organic, local, vegetarian products and bulk foods.

its got a homestyle feel, even grains are just packed in re-used jars


seemed liek they had all kinds of grains and bulk foods, taking up as much space as the fresh produce


and speaking of, here are all the fresh produce.. including fiddleheads in season

Check out their website, or better yet, go visit the place. This co-op was essentially created by a bunch of hippies in the 70's who were interested in having ownership in the food they eat, and where they buy it. Having spoken to one of the workers it seems a lot of their success early on has now slowed down as they are trying harder to re-new memberships.

Which all makes very much sense as the organic, local or healthy food scene isn't very underground anymore. You can find selections from even larger big box grocery stores nowadays and i think this is simply a matter of remarketing rebranding their business model to stay competitive. Their prices are on the expensive side and i didn't notice a lot of local foods, and personally i'd rather support a local food movement before worrying about organics. Of course in a perfect world we'd like to have both, but the way i see it is if we eat more local foods, the less pesticides/perservatives/treatments are required to clean/perserve/protect our foods.

either way, i'm all in for supporting initiatives that bring healthier food to all