A new business model for food retail

The West End Well is a cooperatively owned grocery store in Ottawa that aims to bring healthy, local foods to the community. The enterprise differs from most organic retail in that it attempts to break the convention of quality foods being accessible only to those of higher incomes. They aim to do this through partnership strategies that involve connecting farmers directly to the customers, offering workshops on nourishment and healthy foods, and (potentially) establishing a food voucher system. In addition, West End Well will make better use of their produce through a café that can use ‘ugly’ vegetables that do not have the ‘store-quality appearance’, but are still of good nutritional quality.