Talk to me about joining/ordering from a food co-op

[dfunk98]

I used to order food from an organic food co-op through my la leche league group. we haven't placed an order in a while and i'm not sure if it's even still going. i'm contemplating starting a new group to order stuff. but i have no idea how it works, with prices and whatnot. the co-op is neshaminy valley. here is their catalog. I don't know how to figure out the prices. it gives the unit price, case price, srp, all that, but how do i figure out how much i will be paying for things. ideally, i would like to order bulk stuff, like dried beans, organic sugar, etc. basically, the stuff i use in quantity but cannot get at costco.
any help would be appreciated. i'm new at this so please type slow and use small words

tia!!

[AngelBee]

Looking at their catalog

[sanguine_speed]

I've coordinated a natural foods buying club for several years, and my advice is to contact them directly to get answers to your questions. Hopefully they can help you! They seem to be very supportive about calling for help (on the first pages of the catalogue).

[dfunk98]

thanks, i'll give that a try!!

[mamadelbosque]

I'm in a pretty big co-op through United Natural Foods (website is unfi.com). I love it. I've been in it for probably close to 2 years now, and have it down pretty well. We order/pickup every 4 weeks, and have a very active 'split list' through which you can generally order only 1-3 things from a case (and the rest is split up amongst the other members. They've recently (within the last year) changed their ordering system and also now release their catalog in PDF format, which is super nice, and their sales are pretty darn good (most sales are 15-25% off the bulk price, and then their extra specials which we get are often 30-50% off). My order averages around $250 a month, and aside from that I spend ~$100-200 on groceries. Not half bad for a family of 4 (3 adults & 1 toddler), IMO!!