People’s first storefront, located at 4859 Voltaire Street.
Editor: The following was lifted off People’s online newsletter.
This month, Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market celebrates its 40th year as a retail vegetarian grocer.
Our story began in 1971, when a group of liked-minded people met at a beachside picnic table to discuss the idea of creating a place where the community could purchase whole, minimally processed, organic (when available), vegetarian food at affordable prices.
Today, as a bastion of sustainable and environmental living practices, People’s operates out of a 12,000 square foot, award winning “green” building, providing the very best in organic and vegetarian food.
Below is a reprint of an article written for the O.B. Rag by a People’s worker in the spring of 1973, almost a year after we opened our first storefront on August 19th, 1972. We were smaller back then, a lot smaller. We started the business with one manual hand-crank adding machine used to total customers’ purchases, and one scale for them to weigh their own food; shoppers would then tell the one (yes, one) cashier the price. These humble beginings have evolved into a long love affair between great food, dedicated employees and wonderful customers.
And, with the loyalty of hundreds of workers and thousands of shoppers during the course of the past 40 years, People’s has thrived and grown to become the most celebrated customer-owned grocery store in the county. People’s Co-op couldn’t have done any of this without each of you.
For that we say thank you, we love you, and Happy Birthday People’s!
People’s Food, People’s Prices
by Diane Miller, 1973
As most of you know, the O.B. People’s Food Store has been serving the people for seven months now. We opened last summer because the former O.B. Coop was barely functioning, and we felt there was a need for a more stable centralized location where food could be distributed. We felt that a people’s food store would be a convenient alternative to …
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