A brief history of the Kootenay Country Store Co-operative 1975 - 2001

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Case Study © British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies & Kootenay Country Store Co-operative
"In the early 1970’s British Columbia experienced a province-wide grass roots effort to decentralise the food supply and improve access to affordable high quality whole foods and staple household items. The buying clubs that emerged in both rural and urban locations around the province cut out the middleman and made use of unconventional food sources. Club members teamed up to purchase large bulk orders from a number of co-operative wholesalers in the lower mainland. The Kootenay Country Store Co-operative formed in 1975 as a product of buying clubs that had emerged in the Slocan Valley."