Self-organized friendly procurement platform mini tour sharing session begins

Our Dou Haoyou friendly purchasing platform was founded in October and has just turned two months old. During these two months we opened fifteen group buys, and what we bought was nothing more than agricultural products, handmade goods and household items, yet the total purchase amount has already exceeded 180,000. Because there is no profit, the cost of testing products and shipping sometimes has to come out of our own pockets, but honestly, this number moved me quite a bit. Because this number represents that "the unity of consumers is power," and it also represents that "consumers use purchasing to directly support the producers they trust."

I am very grateful to every member of the cooperative. With a purchasing platform that is such a small-scale and strongly experimental endeavor, none of this would be possible at all without mutual trust. I also thank every small farmer and producer we have had the fortune to work with; their support and trust are the key to this experimental cooperative being able to move forward steadily.

Of course, it is not that no one has raised doubts and objections.

During this period I have had the chance to exchange views with people from different professions, including the chief financial officer of a social enterprise, a senior financial manager at a company, and a senior with experience in organizing cooperatives, and so on. From their own expertise or experience, they offered us different suggestions. I brought these suggestions back to the team, in preparation for more diverse and longer-term thinking in the future.

What is certain at present is that making money with the platform was not my original intention. Keeping the operation small-scale is also a deliberate choice. But how to sustain the costs generated during operation, and how to let this experimental platform have nourishment to keep operating for a very long time, is a practical and important question. We are still searching for the answer.

Thanks to NewsMarket, I received enthusiastic letters and assistance from many netizens, who spontaneously found venues in different cities and helped me hold this small-scale tour sharing session. I had the chance to talk with everyone about the lessons the cooperative has learned up to now, and of course, the mistakes we have made as well.

I sincerely hope our small experiment will have the chance to be replicated in different corners of Taiwan, China, and then these small platforms from all directions can walk together, continuously maintaining the exchange of opinions and discussion, and perhaps we can spark even more possibilities.

"Aren't you thinking too simply?" At a food expo, a friend chatting with me questioned my idea.

People always have the right to dream, I think.

"Experience of Self-Organized Friendly Purchasing Platforms" Small Tour Sharing Session

◎Schedule:

• 2014/12/13 (Sat) 9:00 Taoyuan / Da'an Elementary School (limited to 30 people)Address: No. 638, Heping Road, Da'an Village, Bade City, Taoyuan County
• 2014/12/13 (Sat) 15:00 Taipei Guting / Xiaolushang Art Space (limited to 20 people)Address: 1F, No. 7, Lane 77, Section 2, Roosevelt Road, Taipei City
• 2015/01/03 (Sat) 10:30 Hsinchu / Green Market (limited to 30 people)Address: No. 101, Section 2, Guangfu Road, Hsinchu City (by Chenggong Lake, National Tsing Hua University)
• 2015/01/17 (Sat) 10:00 Tainan / 1982 Life House (limited to 20 people)Address: No. 9, Lane 68, Section 1, Yongfu Road, West Central District, Tainan City
• 2015/01/17 (Sat) 19:00 Taichung / Mojocoffee (limited to 20 people)Address: No. 902, Section 2, Taiwan Boulevard, Xitun District, Taichung City

◎Note: This event is free of charge, but each event follows the rules of its venue and requires in-store consumption.
◎Registration: Please fill out the registration form (venue space is limited)