The Membership Fee is required for all Consumer and Producer members in order to access the Six Rivers Market system to purchase and/or sell product. Fees are used to pay the expenses involved with maintaining the service, including rent, equipment, marketing, applicable licenses, other operating expenses, and some reserve funds. If it ever becomes apparent that the membership fee should be adjusted, the membership will vote on either a decrease or increase of the fee.
 Commission or “Shipping and Handling Charge”:
Current Producer Commission: 6%
Current Consumer Commission: 6%
Total Commission: 12%
We charge the producers a commission to sell through the coop, and the customer members pay a commission to buy through the coop. That is how we get the money we need to operate. We pay for rent, utilities, supplies, equipment, materials, mileage, work-credit, accounting fees, and etc. on down the list of typical business expenses.
The producer commission is 6%, and the customer commission is 6%, so Six Rivers Market Cooperative operates on a margin of 12% of our sales, which is less than half the margin of a conventional grocery cooperative. Typical mark-up on wholesale prices is 30-35% in a conventional grocery cooperative. This is the beauty of a web-based market!
The coop does not buy wholesale from the producers and sell retail.
Producers set their own prices, so we don't have a wholesale mark-up.
Why is it called shipping and handling?
Because if we call this commission "shipping and handling" (which it is, because it pays for the process of getting the groceries to the members), the charge does not incur sales tax. If we call it "customer commission", then sales tax will be charged on the fee. So naming it "shipping and handling" saves the member money.
Why don't we load all the fees on the producers and not charge the customers?
Both producers and consumers are members and we have felt from the beginning that both should support the coop's operations. ("We," being the original organizing committee.) If we simply charge the producers 12%, then they will raise prices to incorporate that additional charge, and that will increase the sales tax paid by the customers
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