We all know that buying in bulk gets us a better deal - the price per unit is cheaper when we buy more. But this helps the middle classes far more than it helps poorer people - you have to pay more initially and get the benefit of the savings over a long period of time.
This doesn't work when you are on benefits. The bulk purchase eats into too much of your fortnightly payment, so that it doesn't matter if the savings come back over six months; in the immediate future you will be juggling to keep your electricity topped up and get your other essentials.
There are many household essentials that we use slowly over a long period: washing powder is expensive but we might use only a few ounces a week; we buy bin bags on rolls of at least 10, but only use one per week. When I worked in Sri Lanka, I found that local kiosks sell everything in micro-packets for use as needed, because there, people earn by the day and spend by the day - buying more than is needed for the day isn't affordable. We don't want this to be a standard way of life for anyone, here or in Sri Lanka, but the way forward is to start with where we are now - we must recognise that cash flow matters when trying to move on from subsistence living to something better.
So we are using the same principle to establish a bulk-buying club in Dumbiedykes. Residents are getting together to buy household essentials in bulk at a cheaper price, then splitting the items to small units for community members, passing on the same cheaper unit price, helping people to cheaper shopping without the high initial outlay.
We're looking forward to ironing out the logistics over the coming months, but starting this week with a survey on the items people most want to buy.
We'll start with dry goods, household essential products and anything with a long shelf life. If we can build the volunteer team, good customer base and daily turnover, we'll move on to fresh goods in time.