Co-op 101: Tariffs

by Lucia Hulsether

If you’ve been following international news, you may feel like you’ve been on a bad rollercoaster ride themed around the future of tariffs, trade, and labor. Many of us are asking: What is going to happen to the prices of basic consumer products? How will new policies affect everyday people? What can our communities do, collectively, to find stability amid the chaos?

Believe it or not, we can look to the early history of Honest Weight Food Co-op as one example of how a community joined together to access affordable and sustainable goods in the wake of economic shockwaves. 

The story begins in 1976, a period of unprecedented global inflation and stagnating employment, issues driven in part by wars in the Middle East and a domino effect of rising oil prices. Against this backdrop, a group of twenty friends brainstormed ways to access hard-to-find consumer goods at affordable prices. Their solution? A buying club.

The friends pooled their resources to increase their buying power. Together, they could purchase 50-lb bags of dried goods to distribute among the group. The bulk bags of wheat flour, nuts, brown rice, and more were delivered to two members’ basement, and orders from the community rolled in each week. Within a year, demand was so high that the friends decided they needed a bigger space. They reorganized as a cooperative open for all. Honest Weight’s first storefront on Quail Street was born–and we’ve been growing ever since.

Those friends didn’t solve the entire geopolitical conflict, but their “think globally, act locally” effort made a rippling impact on their community. Next time you come to the Co-op, think of them, and then consider what small acts of social solidarity and civic engagement you might take to make this world a little better.

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