Project Proposal

      Burlington is known as a very progressive, socially and environmentally conscious city. These qualities have a large effect on consumer choices in regards to food shopping. By examining how City Market operates, we aim to analyze the health and sustainability of local food systems.
      City Market operates as a co-op with the mission statement:

"The Onion River Co-op will be central to a thriving and healthy community, where:

• Consumers have local access to progressive social, environmental and healthful choices;
• Residents enjoy an enhanced quality of life;
• The local food system is strengthened;
• The cooperative model is supported; and our owners have a sense of pride in their cooperative.

"...Our goal is to provide low-income customers with access to progressive, social, and healthful choices through education and outreach and to specifically reduce childhood hunger in Burlington."

    These goals are clearly very community-oriented, and we aim to examine how these goals are accomplished while still remaining profitable in a competitive industry. Thus we will compare City Market to Hannaford, a conventional chain supermarket also in the area, to observe the differences in how the two businesses operate.