Some thoughts about various grocery shopping experiences in Bellingham and beyond.

If more people rode bicycles, it would look different than this. In the background, the serine view of mountains in Canada.

Recent news, in Bellingham, that Bellingham Food Coop employees have voted in favor of unionizing brings up some of my thinking about the grocery business.

Coops are a different structure than corporations, but all businesses are effected by similar economics. Large corporations often offer lower price due to the reality called "economy of scale." I still go to the Downtown Food Coop due to other factors besides just the lowest price which is often associated with economy of scale. Other virtues, such as being in a location safely accessible by bicycle matters to me and the price difference doesn't seem that much.

I get ready to eat salads at the in store Coop deli. There, I often find folks I know who share good conversation.

Large outfits, such as Fred Myer, owned by Kroger, or Winco, said to be owned by it's employees, have economy of scale and are said to offer low prices. I've almost never set foot in Winco, due to it's unfriendly location for bicycling. That whole area is kind of a traffic nightmare.

There is also a branch of the Coop in that part of town, but I usually go to the downtown Coop. The northside Coop isn't as convenient for me, but it's location is still better than Winco, traffic wise, in my opinion.

Pictured above is the Costco which is popular among progressives, but also lots of cars. One needs to have a Costco membership that I haven't gotten. Being single and living in a studio apartment, I don't need pallot loads of toilet paper.

Whether it's a corporation, or not, economy of scale relates mostly to numbers and size. Corporations aren't necessarily worse, in my opinion, than other arrangements. It's mostly about the people who are there and the overall experience.

From what I read, the Coop management has been okay with the decision of employees to unionize. Another workplace, Starbucks, is also in the news as more resistant to it's employee union efforts.

From what I gather, Starbucks started out as a small alternative favored by progressive minded folks in Seattle, but it grew into being a big corporation. I often think it's not so much the structure of the organization that matters. To me it's more about the people who are there and how they are running things.

It's also about the values we all have; what matters most? Is it traffic nightmare or bicycle / pedestrian access. Friendly conversation or the absolute lowest price.

With rent being my biggest expense each month, I may not notice saving a few cents on price. I save more money by just not owning a car.

The virtues, I value, are not always things brought by economy of scale, but I understand some of that economics and that's part of the reason why I think, just getting rid of corporations will not solve all our problems. That's just the structure of the organizations, but the way we all live and what we value matters the most.