In this episode of Common Roots, Christina Manalansan joins us from Rainbow Grocery Cooperative in San Francisco, CA. As a long time fixture of organic eating in the Bay Area, Rainbow Grocery has been focused on providing affordable food with minimal negative ecological and social impact to their community since 1975. Along with their strong commitment to buying local, Rainbow Grocery is also worker-owned, a business model that ensures that workers get a say in the direction of the cooperative.
“Rainbow is comprised of almost 200 people and we’re all owners of the store,” Christina says, “All our profits are split evenly at the end of the year, and everything is decided democratically amongst the workers.”
Not only do worker-owned co-ops mean financial benefits for workers, but they also foster community amongst people with common goals and interests. “The biggest highlight I would say is the flexibility,” Christina comments, “We all take care of each other. A lot of us are friends and a lot of us have lived with each other… Along with being a natural foods store, it kind of feels like its own sub-cultural world that’s been able to survive for 50 years.”
Rainbow Grocery Mural
Christina also says that she notices that the worker-owned model has tangible impacts on employee longevity. “I think the biggest thing is shared values and morals,” she says, “we’ve created this bubble of natural foods and community, and I think that’s why people stay here.” Beyond the shared values, Christina notes that Rainbow provides its workers with growth opportunities that aren’t usually available at conventional grocery stores.
“A lot of my coworkers are going through college right now, and they’re able to do it because of Rainbow. For a lot of our workers, this is the first job that gives them full benefits. It’s an accessible job where you can learn leadership skills that you might not be able to get at a Whole Foods where you’d just be stocking.”
Christina & Co-worker
This lack of a bureaucratic model means that employees can shape the future of their employment at Rainbow. Whether they want to become a part of the co-ops board of directors or be a part of the public relations team, the door is open for them.
“I was on public relations for two years, but my workload was getting up to 50 hours a week, so this year I thought ‘maybe I just want to step back and stock my aisle.’ There are a lot of roles you can step into if you want to,” she says.
From its robust employee benefits to its deep care for natural foods and community, Rainbow Grocery continues to set a high standard for cooperative models in the natural foods industry.
Listen to the full episode here.
#INFRANews#INFRABlog#IndustryNews#RealDeal