High Involvement Thinking and the Re-Emergence of Food Cooperatives: A Case Study on Scranton Area Grocery Exchange

With the reoccurrence of food contaminations and growing concerns about the effects of current agriculture practices, society is rethinking their food choices. Grocery consumers have begun to put more time and thought into their food purchases, some even researching where it comes from. This shift in consumer behavior toward grocery purchases coupled with the economic downturn in recent years, created a demand for inexpensive, environmentally conscious, and healthy food. These driving forces have created a market in which food cooperatives are beginning to re-emerge. In this project I will detail and define food cooperatives, their history, the driving forces behind them, and follow a local startup food cooperative in the Scranton, Pennsylvania area