DC has a history of buying clubs, a form of cooperative. I just added a Senghor Baye‘s history of a few of these: the Shepherd Street Collective Buying Club, Sure Savings Collective Buying Club, and Community Based Buying Clubs formed in DC around 1980-1994. He’s glad to help others form their own buying clubs today (senghorb@hotmail.com).

By Senghor Jawara Baye aka Alvin Ricks (one of the founders). In the early 1980’s several families in the 1200 Block of Shepherd St NW Wash. DC came together and formed S.S.C.B.C Shepherd Street Collective Buying Club later changed to Sure Savings Collective Buying Club. We contacted and organized first 14 families and explained the goals and objectives was to provide 40 to 60% savings on our monthly food bills. Two of our families were the core organizers, the Ricks family and the Watkins family who each lived in the 1200 Block of Shepherd St NW and had some previous experience in organizing, purchasing food wholesale and economic development. Once we explained the bi-weekly operations, everyone was excited and we got started on.. See more

You can find this and other histories marked by an * in the Coop Directory. Feel free to send me your histories of DC cooperatives: johanna.bockman@gmail.com