This past friday Pauline from La Osa Coop visited Opinno to share her passion for this innovative cooperative supermarket. During her visit she shared the core values of the organization as well as the structure and how to become a member of this growing community.
La Osa coop is a cooperative and participatory supermarket in which its members are consumers, co-owners and participants. They are consumers as only the co-operative members can access the supermarket and buy what they want when they want. Co-owners due to the fact that it belongs exclusively to the cooperative members. They are the ones that vote on major decisions at General Assemblies, to help improve the co-operative. And Lastly, but equally important, they are participants, they dedicate 3 hours every 4 weeks to do the work of the supermarket such as restocking, receiving orders, cleaning, cashier, administration, etc.
The OSA coop is a non-profit organization. Which means that its main purpose is not to achieve an economic benefit, but social welfare. It is also a direct savings cooperative, meaning that the economic benefit it generates from it sales, is not distributed among its members, on the contrary, it focuses reinvesting the profit in making the products more affordable. In this way, the better the management of the activity, the better the conditions and options that its members will have when making the purchase.
Opinno team members were very interested in the type of products they can find at this supermarket. Pauline answered all their questions regarding the availability of the products explaining that lA OSA offers self-service and assisted sales for a complete range of food, hygiene, cosmetic and cleaning products, which will cover all the basic and complementary needs of a food and non-food shopping basket at affordable prices. Usually the products vary depending on the season, so that their members can learn how to eat by season and enjoy different foods every month. They also offer specific products for vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free, lactose-free, and a great variety in bulk.
A very important element for these supermarket comes when it's time to choose the products they offer as they have a strict purchasing policy, based on a 6 criteria of equal value: environmental impact, proximity, ethical production, price, and meeting the needs of our community of cooperative members.
