I gave up Coles and Woolies for a food co-op. Here’s what happened

2 hours ago 1

I have produce on my mind. Avocados to smash on toast, ginger to tackle a cold and green vegetables my children will love to hate.

For the past week, I’ve been preoccupied with getting through an enormous box of fresh vegetables, fruit and eggs that didn’t come from the big two supermarkets. Pumpkin soup, zucchini slice and countless salads later, I am down to a fruit bowl’s worth of produce that is still in good nick.

One week’s worth of fruit and vegetables from Box Divvy (left), and what was left over (right).

This thanks to Box Divvy, a direct-from-farm co-op that promises fresh produce about 30 per cent the price of supermarkets. Its marketing urges customers to “unsupermarket”.

With about 330 branches in NSW and the ACT, Box Divvy this month opened its first Melbourne “hub” in the hilly north-eastern suburb of Templestowe. It plans to open in Croydon North, Sunbury and Berwick next.

The Age is trialling Box Divvy for two weeks to see if there’s a better way to feed a family than buying food all over town, sometimes daily. Like most Australians, I am reliant on Coles and Woolworths, spending an average $108 a week at the big two. These giants nab 67 per cent of Australians’ total grocery spending.

Coles and Woolies stores are almost everywhere, so they have economies of scale and stock a huge range of products. They are listed here, so they have good governance. They directly employ people and pay tax.

Woolworths and Coles nab about two-thirds of Australians’ grocery spending.

But Woolworths and Coles – nicknamed “ColesWorth” by their critics – are among the world’s most profitable grocers. A competition regulator study found grocery prices have been increasing rapidly for at least five years, and the giants are exploiting their dominant position by squeezing suppliers. Their fruit and vegetables are often out of season, transported long distances, manhandled and designed for volume, not taste.

“Supermarkets remain where most Australians buy their fresh produce,” says a spokesperson for grower body AUSVEG. “Vegetable growers need to receive a fair and sustainable price for their produce.”

Within two weeks of opening, Box Divvy’s first Melbourne hub in Templestowe is full, with 45 members.

Kellie Wishart runs the Templestowe food relief charity CareNet and leads Box Divvy’s first Victorian hub. As a “hubster”, Wishart communicates with members via WhatsApp, receives the food deliveries on Monday morning, and sorts them for collection that afternoon.

Kellie Wishart runs the newly opened Box Divvy hub in Templestowe.

“I, personally, am concerned about farmers, I’m worried about food production and what happens when the next generation of farmers don’t come though because the conditions are so rubbish,” Wishart says. “I’m worried about packaging and food miles. And I’m worried about the price of food and the duopoly.”

So, is Box Divvy is cheaper and better quality? The answer was yes, with some caveats.

Here’s how the process went. On Wednesday, I receive an email saying I have three days to order for the following week. I can choose from dozens of fruits and vegetables and am told where they come from, how much the farmer will be paid, and how much I will pay per item.

The ordering system takes a little getting used to because it’s based on box-sharing. Box Divvy is a co-op, not a shop, so you might not get the exact numbers of fruit and vegetables you request, or that produce at all.

A week’s worth of produce from Box Divvy. This costs $62.13.

If you want to order a rare purple cauliflower, for example, you can “suggest a split”. If other members of the hub also want a purple cauliflower, they can join your split. As soon as a minimum number of orders has been reached, the split is “in play” and everyone who is part of that split will receive what they ordered. But some items don’t get enough takers and won’t arrive – a process that won’t work for everyone, says Mark Field, who runs a food and grocery supply consultancy.

There is no minimum spend for members, although they are expected to commit to eight weeks and order at least fortnightly, spending at least $15 a week. Meat, seafood, dairy and other groceries are not yet available in Victoria. Pantry items are expected to be introduced before Christmas, and chilled items next year. “Anything we sell will be good for you,” says co-founder Jayne Travers-Drapes.

I’ve ordered 23 types of produce for my first week, and each item is approved on Saturday night. The food costs $54.03, Wishart’s commission is $8.10, taking the total price to $62.13. I end up getting eggs thrown in free, too.

Monday afternoon comes around, and I head to Wishart’s charity in Templestowe to pick up my box. Wishart’s arrangement is unusual, as most hubsters receive and sort the food from home. Some offer delivery for a fee.

The food takes up all the space in our vegetable crisper plus two fruit bowls, as well as mental energy. I’m an average cook, and my children generally hate my meals. Can I really use all this abundance?

The good news is I’m armed with the old (a second-hand copy of Stephanie Alexander’s weighty Kitchen Garden Companion) and the new (Google AI). Alexander’s book is a godsend for produce I don’t normally buy (purple cauliflower), while Gemini swiftly proposes a week’s worth of (occasionally strange) meals.

Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion comes in handy for using up certain vegetables.

As the first week comes to an end, there’s a bit of uneaten produce, but it still smells and feels good.

“The trick behind the freshness is the fact we don’t store it, we don’t gas it,” says Travers-Drapes. “Every avocado is touched four times and squeezed in the supermarket. Ours aren’t.”

‘We pay 60¢ in the dollar to the farmers; Coles and Woolies pay roughly 30¢.’

Jayne Travers-Drapes, co-founder of Box Divvy

Stephen King, professor of economics at Monash University, says direct-from-farm models are not new, but the challenge has always been logistics.

“The issue is never the farm gate price — it is sorting, packing and shipping,” he says. “This is where economies of scale matter, and Woolworths and Coles have those, and a bunch of stores that avoid the home delivery costs [as] consumers themselves provide the sorting, packing and shipping from the store to the house.”

But Travers-Drapes says Box Divvy has been profitable since it started in 2019. “We’re making profits because we can set up mini-shops within a couple of weeks. We don’t have to have huge infrastructure,” she says.

“And everyone along the line gets paid well. We pay 60¢ in the dollar to the farmers; Coles and Woolies pay roughly 30¢.” Hubsters are paid a 15 per cent commission on produce orders, 12 per cent on pantry orders and 6 per cent for dairy.

On Friday, I tweak my order for the next week, requesting 18 types of fruit and vegetables including blueberries, passionfruit, carrots and snow peas.

A Saturday night email tells me there’s not enough love for green apples, honeydew melon, or kipfler potatoes, so they won’t arrive on Monday. But 15 of my 18 splits are successful, giving me a “success ratio” of 83 per cent. The food costs $36.16, with a hubster fee of $5.42, taking the total price to $41.58. The transparency is top notch.

Week two of fruit and vegetables from food co-op Box Divvy. This cost $41.58.

Monday’s box looks appetising, albeit smaller. I’ll have a healthier-than-usual week because I’ll commit to using all this produce.

But Templestowe is not close to my home, so my Box Divvy experiment will come to an end.

I’ve learnt I don’t need to spend $108 a week at Coles and Woolworths. I can feed four people tasty fruit and vegetables more cheaply, and the produce will last longer – but as Box Divvy only offers produce in Melbourne, supermarket or market visits are still required for everything else.

It also requires a lot of planning. Going to the trouble of ordering ingredients focuses the mind. Hubs are not supermarkets, and they don’t keep supermarket hours. Melbourne’s only hub is pick-up only, so those who can’t make the three-hour Monday afternoon pick-up window are out of luck. Some hubs interstate offer delivery, but the delivery window is short – not ideal for those who work nine to five and commute.

If I lived close to a hub, I would use it. We need more competition in groceries, better diets, and profitable farmers.

You can “unsupermarket”, but you’ll need to plan ahead.

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