A new organic retail co-operative called Labore has opened in Bilbao, Spain.
The new store, located in the densely the populated Santuxu neighbourhood, stocks a ‘whole shop’ offer ranging from fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy and dried goods to eco cosmetics and green cleaning products.
What makes Labore different is its mission to make organic as widely affordable as possible, which it is able to do by operating to much lower (around 50% less) profit margins than typical organic supermarkets. The retailer is able to achieve this thanks to its participatory business model.
To gain access to Labore’s keenly priced organic goods prospective shoppers need to pay an initial subscription fee and an annual EUR60 to become members, or ‘socios’. They are also expected to be willing to spend a few hours during the year working on the shop floor (on the tills, shelf-stacking or dealing with deliveries).
Around 400 socios had joined up by the time the Bilba store opened its doors last month. One of them, Artiza Erkizia, described to the i newspaper Labore’s shopper ‘types’: “I think there are three types of people who shop here – those who come from regular supermarkets, those who pay for weekly boxes of organic food, and those who regularly visit specialist organic shops.” She thinks it’s the third group that will notice the price different the most.
Labore joins a growing movement of organic food co-operatives, and retailers across Europe and North America using alternative financing models. One of the best known in Spain is bioTrèmol in Alicante. New co-ops are planned for other Spanish cities, including San Sebastian and Valencia. In Paris, the La Louve co-op, which opened in 2061, now has over 2,000 members.
Many of the new generation of participatory retail co-operatives took inspiration from New York’s Park Slope co-op, which has been trading continuously since 1973.