Toronto Star Referrer

Fare share

How a local grocery co-op has survived more than 50 years

KARON LIU FOOD REPORTER

Karma Co-op embodies a typical hippie-movement esthetic: a colourful mural on the exterior brick wall, bins of bulk rice and beans (and more recently, bulk chopped fruit and vegetables in the freezer); classes on making your own soap and sauerkraut; and signs encouraging shoppers to bring their own bags and containers — signs that were in place years before the plastic ban went into action.

Without having to dodge giant shopping carts or scan the shelves for the best ketchup brand, shopping here is almost therapeutic.

The independent grocer — tucked away inside a small century-old building at 739 Palmerston Ave. in Toronto’s Seaton Village community — has been around for half a century. Beyond its members, though, few might know it exists.

Karma is a co-op, which means it’s owned and operated by its customers. Shoppers typically pay a membership fee and work a few hours at the store every month. In exchange, they have a say in how the store should be run. It’s a draw for people who want to shop local as much as possible, and avoid the large supermarket chains and global food conglomerates.

At a time when Canada’s biggest grocers continue to be under scrutiny not just by consumer watchdogs but also the public for hiking food prices faster than inflation, the idea of an alternative grocery store model can be appealing.

“I had a member come in after a while and her trigger was the earnings report for Loblaws, so she drove across town to shop here,” said Paul DeCampo, general manager of the store and a co-op member since 1997.

A co-op might not have the buying power of, say, a Walmart or a Loblaws for bottom barrel pricing. Still, a frozen pizza from a local restaurant and a bag of salad greens grown in the city clocks in at just under $20 at Karma, and bars of locally made soap are the same price as at other bulk food shops.

Customers see it as a way to keep more money in local economies and have more say in what’s being sold. It’s also a place to find more

local, small-scale food brands that don’t have the power or desire to scale up to a national grocer.

“We have a member who is a baker who told me which flours to buy and we came out with a better selection because of that,” DeCampo said. “We’re critical of what we stock.”

An alternative to big retailers is what might make Karma appealing today, but it’s also literally what the co-op started out as in 1972 when a group of neighbours opened it in its first location: a warehouse basement on Dupont Street.

“Empowerment is the key word,” said Karma’s president, Sharon Mandair, about the appeal of coops. “Being involved in decisionmaking and having your input valued to create a more intimate relationship with the people who work here.”

The upside with co-ops

Mandair and DeCampo wrestle with ensuring proper work ethics but also meeting how people shop today.

“Our prices are 10 to 15 per cent less than some of our competitors. This is not the least expensive source of food, but it’s the true cost and doesn’t download the cost to the environment (and workers),” DeCampo said. “We’re the alternative to that and want to support the producers. We have a lot of local suppliers who aren’t able to scale up to the large grocers, so they start with us.”

DeCampo goes through the aisles pointing out foods from Toronto companies such as bags of frozen wontons from the Daily Dumpling Co., frozen Windsor-style pizzas from Ambassador Pizza, flaky pies from the Pie Commission and jars of sambal from Indonesian’s Flavour.

When Amy’s Kitchen, a multimillion-dollar U.S. organic food company, made headlines for alleged unsafe working conditions at its factories last year, Karma replaced the line with Belleville-based Sprague Foods.

The challenges with co-ops

“The challenge is that people moved out of the city during the pandemic and there were limits on social interaction, so there had to be a limit on how many people could be in the store, as well as additional staffing costs,” Mandair said.

In Toronto, co-ops come in many forms such as credit unions, housing and cab services, but the numbers of co-op storefronts are sparse. Parkdale’s West End Food Co-op shuttered in 2018 after the medical building it operated in needed the space back. In 2021, Hamilton’s Mustard Seed Co-op closed due to bankruptcy after seven years of operation. The Berry Road Food CoOp was slated to open in Etobicoke at the bottom of a new condo, but it never materialized.

One way Karma remains competitive is by offering niche products and ideas, said Jon Steinman, author of “Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants,” and a member of the Kootenay Co-op in Nelson, B.C. He also consults with community groups in the U.S. and Canada about starting co-ops.

He points to the marketing of natural and organic foods, and Karma’s focus on being a zero-waste store, as concepts that work well with coops. Targeting a specific market such as environmentally conscious shoppers is a way to stand out from the big grocers.

Karma Co-op’s future

Karma has survived for half a century but, like any small independent business, it’s always looking at ways to be sustainable.

It currently has about 800 members, 500 of them considered “active shoppers” who have shopped within the last three months. Mandair says they’re still figuring out what the ideal number of active shoppers is to maintain revenue and have enough volunteers at the store.

“We had an increase in revenue and profitability through COVID, and then it turned around and we’re running a deficit in the last year,” DeCampo said. “Now we’re chugging up to breaking even to be honest. It’s a hard message to deliver when you want to attract new people, but that’s the reality of the small food business.”

Another change they made was eliminating the mandatory work rule this year that was often part of food co-ops.

Instead, Karma members pay a $50 annual membership fee ($20 for students) and those who work at the store for a minimum two hours a month get a five per cent discount.

Non-members can either sign up for a one-month trial membership or pay a 10 per cent markup for a one-time transaction.

The co-op is working to attract new members with an outreach effort through flyers, and showing up at farmers markets and community events, Mandair said, adding they’ll be heading to places such as the Wychwood Farmers Market to spread the word. “We’re doing more community outreach and rebuilding.”

“We’re not throwing in the towel,” DeCampo added. “We’re cautiously optimistic through reaching out to new people.”

Like any small

independent business, Karma Co-op is always looking at ways to be sustainable

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2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

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