The Diaper Jungle Community

[jaazavala]

What is a coop and how does it work?
_________________
Ashley - Mom to Antonio, Maritza, and Joey
I do custom crochet!

[mama24_7]

I can try. Basically, a bunch of us get together and use group purchasing power to buy something from the manufacturer. So then, purely hypothetical situation here. Let's say a company sells unbleached indian prefolds for $12 a piece. If we buy 100 straight from the manufacturer, we pay 8 a piece. So, one person agrees to be in charge of the co-op. That person places the order for what we all want as one big order. Then, we divide the cost of shipping to that person and each person pays their portion plus the cost of whatever they ordered and shipping to themselves.

Make sense? Just a way to leverage some buying power.
_________________
Sara
Homeschooling Mother who is amazed that her children are turning out okay, despite her best efforts. Proof of intelligent design!
Just being honest.

[bdkscrap]

Sara you did a great job explaining it! Co-ops are sometimes also called group buys
_________________
www.madebymama.com

[Mama K]

It's basically placing a large, wholesale order together as a group. The organizer usually charges a small fee to cover her costs. She is not making a profit on the coop, so obviously you have to cover any shipping fees that might come up as well. Since you have to wait for her to order from the company, receive the order and sort out the individual orders, it's not as fast as just ordering from a retail store.

You can find some really great deals, but you have to price compare a bit too. There have been a few times where the savings was not significant enough for me to want to spend the extra time waiting and all of that. Mostly it's a lot of fun though. I have tried a lot of things that I would have never even heard of otherwise.
_________________
~Kaiya~ ... My Mama Blog ...



All DJ mamas save 5% everyday with the code DJMAMA!