A peek into how our buying club works...

So, we order our groceries monthly online (coopshopper.com) and then we work to fill the case minimums when the item in question is only available in larger quantities. This email below is one of our members working to fill her case choices....


Hi coop buying club members,

I am writing to officially "plug" some items I am trying to fill cases
for. You may notice I am essentially trying to get everyone in the club
on a dairy and sugar binge. But isn't that what the holidays are for?
Please consider ordering one of these things to fill out a case:

* Goat milk prodcuts: Every single month I try without any success to
order lots of goat milk products. Why? Goat milk is delicious, AND, more
importantly, goats aren't farmed on the huge scale cows are, aren't
generally given lots of antibiotics and hormones. Goat milk rocks! Widen
your horizons! Try some goat milks products! You will notice I have
started cases of the following delectable items:
- Swiss goat milk: try it, you might like it!
- Euro style Goat milk butter: I have had this and it is AMAZING. Yes,
its pricey, but it's really really good! They sell it at whole foods for $2 more than the
coop charges.
- Goat milk ice cream: Need I say more? Who doesn't want chocolate icea
cream? C'mon folks.

*Soy and rice milk prodcuts:
- I have ben trying for a while to order half gallons of Chocolate Silk,
which is basically chocolate soy milk. Once you have tasted it you will
not be able to live without it. Really.
- Rice dream pies: This is a rice milk icea cream sandwich. You will
love it. Delicious and way less fattening than regular ice cream. (OK,
yes, someone in my household is a major ice cream lover, you may have
figured this out by now.)

* Turbinado/Demerara sugar (in bulk): Do you drink coffee with sugar in
it? I do, every morning. This sugar isn't bleached, isn't refined in any way.
In other words, if sugar can ever be thought of as healthful, this is that
sugar. It's also very tasty and very pretty (large and attractive caramel
colored crystals). You can use it for baking (Thanksgiving pies?) or
anything else for your sugar needs. Whoo hoo!

* I have plugged the Passion Fruit juice in previous months, and people
did order enough for a case. Let's do it again! This is the best
beverage you will ever taste. And you know Nola is a cocktail town. Rum
and passion fruit juice? Hello? Yes!

*Half and half and heavy whipping cream. See a trend here? I love dairy!
The half and half goes along with the Demerara sugar for delicous morning
coffee. And... it's Thanksgiving time folks, and you KNOW you need
whipped creamon your pies.

* Here's something that isn't dairy OR sugar: Canned Tuna! I have
noticed that someone in the coop shares my obsession with Annie's Tuna
Spirals. Don't you need some tuna to go along with it? Mercury poisoning be
damned! We love tuna.

In closing, I must also add I have noticed that since the membership of
the buying club has gotten larger, this doesn't necessarily mean our cases
get filled. It seems like there are more cases opened that don't get
filled. Before you open a new case, check the "sharing items" section and
see if you can help others fill their cases. I've ordered some great stuff that
way that I never would have tried otherwise. That's part of the beauty of
a coop.