GROCERY DEMOCRACY

Rise of the Citizen-Consumer

by Jon Steinman, Author, Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants

If you shop at a food co-op, co-own a food co-op, or work at a food co-op, this article is for you.

It’s written as a reminder—

—that food co-ops are a people’s movement—

—with shared histories going back generations.

From early Black-led co-ops inspired by civil-rights leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois, to depression-era co-ops of the 1930s, to the many waves of co-op formation that followed—all have been inspired by deep commitments to human rights, equal rights, food sovereignty and economic democracy.

Your food co-op is a descendant of these people and their efforts.

Their work set in motion the very reasons why you are reading these words now.

Your co-op and this publication are part of an uninterrupted lineage of change.

There’s value in reminding ourselves of this. Co-ops thrive and remain relevant when the people who use them remember where they came from and why they exist.

For food co-ops, this is no easy task.

Food co-ops are as much “grocery store” as they are “co-op”, but their grocery DNA—being the most visible—often feels dominant, like a child who appears to take after one parent more than the other.

It’s why food co-ops so often wrestle with the dominant grocery narrative among shoppers:

—“my relationship to grocery stores is transactional.”

This transactional narrative is largely invisible.

“The grocery store is a food and price-provider.”

“The shopper is a consumer and price-taker.”

“The success of this relationship is determined by the cheapest price, greatest value, and maximum convenience.”

We can say “co-ops are different” as loudly and as often as we want, but food co-ops still confront these transactional storylines.

Without a dedicated and ongoing effort to remain connected to our “co-op” genes, we risk losing sight of the other co-op “parent.” By remembering that our co-ops are linked to democracy movements of generations past, we’re adding an essential ingredient to the work of storytelling and narrative change.

This work also benefits from disrupting the prevailing beliefs of what a grocery store is and what it does.

Grocery stores are not neutral

A grocery store is not just a grocery store. It’s a health-shaping, economy-shaping, and planet-shaping institution, sitting at the most powerful juncture within food supply-chains. A grocery store determines which foods make it to market—and which don’t. The grocery store is a gatekeeper—determining the future of food.

—and yet, no one holds them accountable for their role in these four key areas of influence.

Instead, grocery stores are most often governed and controlled by absentee owners, where shareholder primacy serves as the sole mechanism of accountability.

This is why the term “Grocery Democracy” is so powerful.

It disrupts the transaction narrative.

It’s also an invitation.

It invites all grocery shoppers (co-op shoppers included) to reconsider the position of grocery stores in our lives and communities.

Why groceries make people feel powerless

Groceries can make people feel powerless. Especially now.

When I examine the origins of this disempowerment, I always return to the same thing—the deeply-rooted transactional grocery experience. The good news? We might be living through the most opportune time to change it.

Rising grocery prices, industry consolidation, fear of concentrated economic power, supply chain instability, tariffs, social fragmentation, distrust of institutions, people and communities feeling less in control.

Grocery Democracy is more relevant today because the gap between who uses the food system and who controls it has never been more visible—or more consequential.

This is a powerful moment for movement-building and imagining a different future.

If we continue treating grocery stores like vending machines, we risk passing that transactional relationship—and the disempowerment that comes with it—on to future generations.

But if a grocery store becomes something we participate in, not just something we use, we flip the script. We begin to see grocery stores as “community infrastructure” and “essential services,” and we begin to understand our role as one of “citizen-consumer” with a civic responsibility.

When grocery stores become “essential community infrastructure”, the narrative changes—our grocery dollars are no longer “expenses,” but “investments”—actual contributions to our communities, and to the people who handle our food from soil and sea to shelf.

By anchoring Grocery Democracy into how we think and how we shop, we are effectively challenging assumptions of what a grocery store is and where democracy lives.

This is less about changing how things look, and much more about how the relationship feels and what it means.

What is Grocery Democracy?

Grocery Democracy is not just an abstract concept.

It means ordinary people having influence over the institutions that feed them.

It means shoppers becoming active stakeholders.

It means participating in the economy instead of moving through it only as consumers.

It means grocery stores being governed by the people who use them.

It moves the narrative from grocery stores as transactional to relational.

The “Citizen-Consumer”

In a Grocery Democracy, we become “citizen-consumers.”

Equal Exchange co-founder Rink Dickinson uses this language of “citizen-consumer” to help flip the script on unprecedented consolidation throughout food supply chains. As economic power concentrates into fewer hands—alongside the political power accompanying it—consumers can respond by using the same logic of consolidation.

“Consumers are the group that is not consolidated and, unlike our farmer partners, not even organized. As long as consumers stay unorganized their power is questionable and, similar to farmers, consolidation is only making things worse. But this group is the sleeping giant. This is the group with the most potential to make a massive change in the food system. And the requirement is to get organized and to think differently.”

– Rink Dickinson, co-founder, Equal Exchange

When shoppers begin to see themselves as “citizen-consumers,” we anchor the narrative change even deeper.

Whereas a “consumer” asks: “what’s cheapest?” or “what’s the best quality or value?”

A “citizen-consumer” asks:

• Who owns this?

• Who benefits?

• What kind of community does this create?

• What is my role and responsibility?

By offering shared-ownership of a grocery store, and by recirculating benefit back into the store and the people who depend on it, the food co-op model is facilitating that very possibility—where people can become citizens within the economy.

This is the co-op story—Grocery Democracy.

But the risk remains.

Democracy at our food co-ops is not inevitable—not when the dominant grocery experience of transaction is so strong.

We must keep reminding ourselves and one another of how democracy shows up in food co-ops and we must continue to engage differently.

BEYOND THE BALLOT BOX

How democracy shows up at food co-ops

The easiest and most potent example of Grocery Democracy in a food co-op is our capacity to elect a board of directors to govern the store. But democracy shows up in many other ways, beyond the ballot box.

Power

When power concentrates into fewer hands, co-ops act as a remedy by distributing power more widely and equitably. No single co-op member has more power than any other.

This is also what democracy looks like.

Public grocery stores

Long before the current conversations about public grocery stores, food co-ops were already demonstrating what democratically governed grocery infrastructure can look like. When a food co-op supports other community organizations, they become community development agencies. When a food co-op stocks local products—working one-on-one with suppliers to help grow their businesses—the co-op becomes an economic development agency. This is the work of a public institution.

Democratizing the economy

Democracy and the economy are inseparable—something made increasingly visible as concentrated economic power translates into concentrated political power. This makes democracy within the economy an essential ingredient to the survival of democracy in politics. When we invest our food dollars into co-operative enterprises, citizen-consumers are rebalancing economic and political power.

This is also what democracy looks like.

Economic durability

Never before has a food co-op been sold to private interests. Why? Because no GM/CEO or board of directors can make that decision without approval by the co-op’s member-owners—often numbering in the thousands. The durability of the co-op model is also what democracy looks like. It transforms grocery shoppers from passive consumers into citizen-consumers—entrusting us with protecting a community asset across generations.

Belonging

Within the hope to preserve and expand democracy, is often a deeper desire for connection and meaning. People are hungry for spaces where they matter beyond transactions. Food co-ops—and Grocery Democracy—remind us how democracy is not only a political system, but a habit of participation and belonging. This is experiential democracy.

In this narrative, “belonging” isn’t only to what’s in front of us and around us, but it’s also about belonging to movements for economic democracy that span generations.

Next time you walk through the doors of your food co-op—say to yourself—”this is what democracy looks like.”

‘Movement’ implies ‘momentum’

Counter-culturalism requires effort. Just as movement implies momentum.

This is not only the work of the co-op’s communication team, but something we can all take part in.

The timing couldn’t be better.

Power is concentrating into fewer hands.

Many are feeling a democracy deficit and loss of control.

This is the momentum.

Momentum means continuing to show up—resisting the transactional story we inherited, and strengthening the co-op story we want future generations to inherit.

It means organized citizen-consumers expanding the venue for democracy.

It means remembering that grocery stores are not just places we use to transact business, but institutions shaped by people and generations before us—and institutions we can continue shaping together.

Remembering where we came from.
Participating in what we build together.
Telling the story forward.

This is what democracy looks like!

Jon Steinman is a food systems thinker, author, and educator with a 25-year career shaping how communities engage with food. He is the author of Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants. www.grocerystory.coop

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