A few families in India got together to combine their group purchasing power. It's now a large scale purchasing and distribution organisation (Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP)) which caters for 21000 families. The consumers are rewarded with cheaper groceries, and because they order their shopping and have it delivered, they avoid impulse buying.

They're helping the planet by reducing emissions from transportation (estimated at 52000km pa), by only supplying healthy foods, and by demanding less & more sustainable packaging.

There's no reason that this wouldn't work here in Melbourne. An organisation like this could source food which is organic/seasonal or has low food miles & provide it at affordable prices that could compete with supermarket rates

I love that this group started at back-yard get together scale, and now turns over 6 million a year.

Read more here in Choice magazine.