Raw Dog Food Buying Coop - How do you start one?

[dogs4life]

I'm interested in buying bulk with a group of people in my area since there isn't one already set up. We want to buy from USDA organic and grass fed suppliers....we are mailny interested in green tripe, grassfed beef and calves meats and organs, raw goat milk, rabbit, poultry, and maybe some bison. I think I can find reasonable cold storage space but I'm fuzzy on the details. Do you have a separate bank account, do you need a business license, do you need money upfront before you place orders, who do you give access to the bulk product in cold storage, how do you keep track of who takes what out of storage.......I'm full of questions.

Anyone ever start a coop before? Any type of coop? How much of a time commitment is it?

Any tips you'd like to share, like warnings and procedures?

Thanks,

Kendra

[Agile PAWZ]

The co-op I use to belong to simply contacted meat supplies and spoke to them about buying in bulk, ie how much would need to be ordered to get a discount, do they ship or deliver, how much can they supply ect. One person within the group would place the order and the other members would send the money to her, or money was collected at time of delivery. We all came to the delivery location and picked up our own orders, no storage facility was used. I think that unless you are buying over 1000lbs you're not going to need a storge facility. I guess there were about 20 -25 people in the co -op and we would order on avg between 400 & 500 lbs of meat.

[dogs4life]

Thanks Pat! I really appreciate it. Just curious, why don't you use the coop anymore?

[Agile PAWZ]

I compete in agility and it seemed that the delivery dates almost always fell on a trial weekend and I couldnt get there to pickup. Several of my agility friends also belonged and so we were all in the same boat. Also I find that buying on my own is almost as cheap. If you are going to start a co op I would discuss within the group approx how much would be purchased at a time and just what types of meats you are looking for. We had suppliers of Lamb, Rabbit, Venison, Chicken, Ostrich and sometimes Buffalo. Check your meat wholsalers in your phone book and see just what is out there. Also you more than likely will be looking at a delivery fee of some sort with the cost of gas. There could also be a minimum purchase amount too.

[dogs4life]

I was planning on Cold Storage to reduce price/lb, shipping costs and allow free-access. Most meat, eggs and raw milk suppliers are semi-local, ranging from 30-200 miles from us and I'm trying to stay away from brokers, if I can. Seafood shipping costs will surely be more expensive since most suppliers are out of state and out-of-country but still will be cheaper than Costco or discount grocery.

We'll see....it may take too much of my time to be really worth the discount in prices.

Thanks for the info.