Ordering from BFC

To order from Brighton Food Co-op (BFC), you must either become a member (see How to Join) or else arrange to order as a Guest. A Guest can order only one time -- subsequent orders require membership.

BFC obtains our products from a variety of suppliers and tries to accommodate a variety of member circumstances in the ordering process. Our main supplier is the United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) warehouse in Indiana, which carries a large variety of products supplied by many vendors. But we also order from Frontier Co-op, Door to Door Organics (produce), and various other vendors outside UNFI, many of them local to the Brighton area.

The key role in the ordering process is that of the Batcher (also known as Order Coordinator or Order Collator), who takes orders from members, consolidates the orders, adjusts quantities to meet the requirements of the suppliers, and then submits the consolidated orders to the suppliers. BFC has four Batchers: UNFI, Frontier, Produce, and Outside Vendor (OV).

BFC holds a distribution every 4 weeks. The dates of these distributions and related ordering events are posted in the calendar on the home page of this website. The events follow an established pattern:

About 3 weeks before distribution, the Batchers email updated product information to the BFC membership. This information includes items on special, new items that may be of particular interest, popular items that are currently unavailable, etc.
Individual member orders are initially due to the Batchers 13 days before distribution (always on a Wednesday, since distribution is always on a Tuesday).
A couple days after the initial order-due date, the Batchers email unfilled cases reports showing items that were initially ordered whose quantities did not add up to the minimums required by the suppliers.
Members then have a second due date 4 days later (always on a Sunday) to adjust/resubmit their orders to meet the minimums. Besides adjusting quantities of items already ordered, members can also add new items, but only in whole case quantities.

The methods for submitting BFC orders vary according to the Batcher involved and can be summarized as follows:

UNF - Orders must be prepared on UNF's Web Ordering System (WOS). For details, click HERE.
OV - Orders should be submitted via email, either in the body of the message or as a text file attachment. However, the OV Batcher may also be willing to take orders via FAX, U.S. Mail, or hand-delivery.
Frontier - Orders should be submitted via email, either in the body of the message or as a text file attachment.

Note that phone orders are not currently accepted for any orders, although in situations of dire emergency it may be possible for you to work out something with the Batchers over the phone.

Note also that batching is a tough job that quickly becomes unmanageable unless members observe certain guidelines. A former Batcher has summarized those guidelines HERE. Please read them before placing an order.

The rest of this page describes in greater detail the acceptable methods for submitting Outside Vendor and Frontier orders.

Outside Vendor Orders

Here are the steps for placing an order for items from the "Outside Vendors" List:

Click HERE to obtain the e-mail address of the current OV Batcher .
Send the OV Batcher an email listing the items you want. Each item on your list should include Product Code (from the Catalog in the BFC Handbook or from the OV section of the BFC Website at www.brightonfoodcoop.com/vendors.htm), Brief Description, and Quantity.
The email should also indicate how many Produce Shares you want, if any. Like other OV items, produce items have Product Codes, and orders for those items must be submitted to the OV Batcher. But unlike other OV products, produce is offered primarily in "shares". Each month, after reviewing which items Besteman has on special and what items have been requested by members, the Produce Batcher decides on a whole set of items to order. At distribution that set will then be divided into a certain number of equal shares, with each share containing exactly the same items in the same number or weight. There's one OV Product Code for Produce Share, but the content of the share will vary from month to month. You can also place special produce orders, but in most cases, a special order requires the purchase of a whole case of the item.

Frontier Orders

Here are the steps for placing an order for items from Frontier Coop:

Click HERE to obtain the e-mail address of the current Frontier Batcher .
Send the Frontier Batcher an email listing the items you want. Each item on your list should include Item Number (from the Frontier Catalog or from the Frontier Website at http://www.frontiercoop.com), Brief Description, and Quantity (preferably a range). Frontier occasionally changes its Item Numbers, so please use updated catalogs. If you use the website instead, please follow the links all the way down to the individual item window to obtain the Item Number for each item you want to order. Note that both the website and the catalog list retail prices. BFC prices are not listed, but will be closer to wholesale.