The Rainbow Grocery store in San Francisco, California has been up and running since the 1970's and has been working under a radical cooperative business model since its inception.
Rainbow started out in 1975 in San Francisco's Mission District, a grungy downtown area of the city under a motorway flyover. Despite its surroundings, Rainbow is the ultimate mecca for those interested in their health, wholefoods, supplements and fresh, organic, local produce.
Rainbow buys in bulk from local producers and this comprises much of its appeal to its loyal followers. Their Bulk Foods section is an ingenius way of getting people to part with unnecessary packaging and bring their own refillable tubs and pots. Here you can ladle butter and scoop rice and lentils to your hearts content, without damaging the environment and clogging up landfills with excess plastic.
Rainbow does more than just offer quality food though. It provides a focal point for the local and the foodie community, posting ecological projects and advertisements on its substantial noticeboard.
The cooperative of “workers” (not employees) decide on everything from the days that the store closes (calendar includes Gay Pride Day) to which type of skylight are installed in the roof. In the early days, less workers meant less structure, but today the 260+ people at Rainbow are organised using their own hierarchy of committees representing each of the 14 autonomous departments at the store.
Workers admit that the cooperative approach hinders progress somewhat as it takes so long to agree on action. Larry Gilmore has been working at Rainbow since 1983 and says that in the early days, volunteers were likely to earn “10 bucks for a 10 hour shift, and all the food they could eat.” Back then, the operation was simpler:
“In the Seventies, there were only 20 people working [at Rainbow]: they would just bring in cases of almonds and open them, or barrels of brewer's yeast, five-gallon drums of honey... Back then, bulk selling was a way to get good food at good prices.”
Still, the store is a thriving entity, having raked in 9% profit on a gross income of $50m last year and it continues to uphold “green” values. During daylight hours, no electricity is used to light the store as they have opted for “daylight harvesting” by installing skylights and solar panels. Bike riders are treated like kings, as members of the San Francisco Bike Coalition get 10% of their bill and bike locks are offered to those who don't have one or have forgotten theirs.