save your pennies at the Leith Wholefood Co-op

Today I chanced upon a fortuitious thing. I was walking past the Post Office collections building, towards Leith Walk. On the corner of West Montgomery Place and Brunswick Road, sits a very exciting prospect, the Leith Wholefood Co-op. It is open only limited hours (Saturday 11am-6pm Tuesday 1pm-4pm Thursday 6pm-8pm ), so I was delighted to find it open.

A little background: The Co-op is not-for-profit and is run by volunteers at the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, founded 'for groups or individuals to use who are trying to make a better society and improve their lives'. It's friendly and helpful atmosphere, accessible to pushchairs and wheelchairs.

Why do I tell you all this? There is cheap, organic and eco-friendly produce on your doorstep for a snip of the price. Food prices are kept low by buying in bulk. A small mark-up is taken in order to pay for the premises.

To see if it really was cheaper, I compared how much I would spend if I were to buy organic chickpeas, rice and honey here and with a few other shops:
£4.45 at the Co-op
£6.62 at Realfoods
£7.57 at Damhead
£5.31 at Sainsbury's (buying own-brand organics products where possible)

Below you'll see that the Co-op was not the cheapest for every item, but the bill in total was considerably cheaper. The Co-op has a good range of staples with which you could fill up your store cupboard (at least until you are familiar enough to know what they have and you will need on a regular basis). It is certainly worth visiting and catching some of their cut price goodies.
http://www.autonomous.org.uk/foodcoop.html

Only one's own circumstances can direct you to save pennies primarily, the degree to which you can and wish to make ethical decisions and if time means you need to get all your goods in one place. Each person is different.

Three Products Compared:

Suma organic chickpeas (tinned):
75p at the Co-op
75p at Realfoods
89p at Damhead
45p at Sainsbury's for own-brand organic chickpeas organic

white basmati rice (non-brand), 1kg:
£1.70 at the Co-op
£3.58 at Realfoods
£3.99 at Damhead
£2.79 for Sainsbury's own-brand

organic Rowse organic honey, 340g:
£2 at the Co-op
£2.29-£2.85 at Realfoods (range of Rowse honeys)
£2.69 at Damhead (for equivalent Capilano organic honey, 340g)
£2.07 at Sainsbury's for Rowse's acacia honey