When you are in the grocery store and you wonder about the background about a product, how likely are you to get a good answer?
I had heard about a grocery store co-op here in Chicago, and one of the selling points to me was that the people who work there knew the products.
The young woman who was providing details noted that you can get a discount on the food if you put in time stocking the shelves.
And you don't have to join to shop there, but you get advantages if you join. So I took a trip on a lovely Saturday afternoon to this co-op to check it out.
We walked past it and didn't realize we missed it. There were 3 aisles and they weren't that long. There was fresh local bread, amazing produce, a refrigerated section with meat and cheese. And all different kinds of healthy, organic food lined the shelves.
There were a number of items you could get in other stores. A few of them you could have bought cheaper in another store. But there were distinct differences.
The loaf of sourdough bread was local and quite good. The grass-fed beef I bought was the same I usually get at the farmers market. Since that market is only open twice a month right now, the co-op offered versatility. There was a new kind of whole wheat spaghetti that I haven't tried yet, but am looking forward to it.
But it was the chocolate milk that I bought that made the difference. Organic milk offers the advantage of more Omega-3s and CLAs, but the price can be a bit too much.
I saw a container of chocolate milk that looked to come from good sources. I asked a woman that worked there about the different brands of chocolate milk. She was very willing to help me, and she knew a lot about what I was buying.
She explained that the one I had with grass-fed but not purely organic. The cows would have been finished with grain. I could have bought the pure 100% organic chocolate milk — which she said was the best chocolate milk on the planet — but felt good and knowledgeable about my purchase. And that made me a happy customer.
If you are the kind of person on a budget and only like to shop in one grocery store, the co-op will not work for you. As a supplement to other grocery shopping, and you want food and knowledge, a co-op could be a part of your future.
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