The Food Department Store

The Food Department Store is intended as an entrepreneurial platform for shared services and the bundling of knowledge and data. In the long run, the Food Department Store can offer a serious alternative to the supermarket because it is based on the same principles, such as economies of scale through efficient data systems and logistics.

The Food Department Store is a design for a comprehensive partnership (food hub) of entrepreneurs, both local and regional, who are active in all parts of the food chain. Integrated cooperation in the chain is necessary to arrive at smart and sustainable solutions. The emphasis is on processing, storage, transport, packaging, product development, marketing, distribution, wholesale, retail, catering, catering and processing of residual products.

Objectives of this plan are:

making a contribution to shortening the food chain in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area by improving the sales opportunities for local agricultural products;
contribute to a sustainable regional food system;
it contributes to the conservation of the Ark of Taste;
contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and the cultural landscape in the region;
contribute to the availability of healthy food of which the origin is known;
contribute to a food system in which the link between producer and consumer is restored;
the creation of a data platform that maps the flows of products and nutrients;
contributing to the movement that links awareness of good food with solidarity and justice.

Target audiences

The main target group is small entrepreneurs in the hospitality and services sector (restaurants, catering, processing, events, retail) who are in trouble due to the COVID crisis. By working together in the context of a cooperative, economies of scale can be achieved and knowledge and data can be shared. The model of cooperation is based on the Rhineland area arrangement and citizens' initiative as advocated by the Cooperative Society.

The Food Department Store concept responds to the shift from eating out to cooking for yourself. This development threatens to turn out to be disastrous for small entrepreneurs in the hospitality, catering and retail sectors. It is mainly the supermarkets that benefit. In the context of the Food Department Store, an attempt is made to use the resources and manpower released in a different way than for food preparation outside the home. New connections are being established between processing, retail, street markets and home delivery.

The added value of the Food Department Store over a diffuse group of small independent entrepreneurs mainly lies in the following benefits for consumers: