Opinions about Coops- Azure vs Unfi--

[crunchy_mama]

I am looking at trying to join a food coop. Unfortunately I live rural so there are no immediate options. I have an UNFI coop that is 1 hr N- they have a 17% discount- but 4% coop fee (and one time coop membership of $20)and 2-3% taxes(she couldn't remember exactly). Then there is the Azure Coop which is about 2.5 -3 hrs away with an 8% fee- no other charges. I am looking into doing this w/ a few other people so driving will be split- plus it will likely only be a few times a year thing, not monthly at this point.

At this point I am leaning toward Azure as they have the seem to have a better selection- of what I am looking for anyway- and their prices seem to be lower even with the fee than that of UNFI- for the things I have checked anyway.

Anyone have experience with either or both and what to chime in?

[mamadelbosque]

I've been in a UNFI Co-op for about 2 years now and I LOVE it. We order out of their catalog every 4 weeks, and I feel like they have a great selection & pretty darn good prices generally, and when stuff goes on sale its often utterly unbeatable. How my co-op works is you order out of the catalog every 4 weeks and pay those prices exactly. Then if you just want to pickup your stuff and pay, you pay $5 per pickup. If your willing to show up an hour or so early and 'work' - sort through stuff and help split up cases/bulk/etc you don't pay the $5 fee. Thats what I do. And I love it. FOr the first year or so I just ran stuff around but have recently inherited the splitting up of bulk items (grains, beans, rice, granola, pasta, nuts, dried fruit, etc). If you PM me your email I can send you the current UNFI catalog for september so you can see what they have (all ordering is done online, and you can download the catalog for free, or pay for a printed version, depending on your preference).