The World’s Queerest Grocery Store Provides a Blueprint for Democracy
Perhaps it is the longer days, the mixture of fog and sun, or the influx of visitors, but summer in San Francisco for hundreds of years has been synonymous with influential, significant events. Examples include the very founding of the city, on June 29, 1776; LGBTQ+ Pride parades and festivals; and the explosive cultural phenomenon known as the Summer of Love that drew at least 100,000 young people into the Haight-Ashbury in 1967. Those individuals championed ideals of peace, love, freedom, and anti-war sentiments. Out of such values emerged a vision for a People’s Food System using food distribution as a form of community building and political education. This, in turn, led to another summer breakthrough moment in San Francisco: the founding of Rainbow Grocery Cooperative.
It was in August of 1975 that the People’s Food System political group and an ashram founded what would soon become the worker-owned and operated co-op. The original store was located at 3159 16th Street near Valencia. (Gestalt Craft Beer Bar is now at that site.) On the other side of the bay, the Berkeley Co-op already had been thriving since 1939 and at one point had become one of the largest urban cooperatives in the U.S.
In 1983, marking a period of growth, Rainbow moved to 1899 Mission Street. This allowed the grocery and general store to all be under the same roof. Yet another move took place in 1996, when the cooperative packed up and headed to 1745 Folsom Street. Rainbow has been at this location ever since.
The Rainbow Grocery Cooperative Mission
The goals of the cooperative have mostly remained the same over the past five decades. They are stated as:
• providing affordable vegetarian food products, which have minimal negative impact ecologically and socially;
• buying goods from local organic farmers, collectives, bakers, dairies, and other local businesses whenever possible;
• providing our customers with the best possible service;
• providing Rainbow Grocery Cooperative’s workers with a livable wage;
• creating a nonhierarchical work space based upon respect, mutuality, and cooperation;
• offering low-cost health care products and resources;
• supporting other collectives and worker-owned businesses;
• supporting fair labor practices;
• donating to local nonprofit organizations and schools;
• encouraging bicycling, mass transit, and alternative transportation;
• composting all in-store green wastes; recycling, reducing, and reusing resources whenever possible;
• and creating a diverse, non-discriminatory multilingual environment.
The cooperative adds, “We maintain an ongoing commitment to make Rainbow Grocery Cooperative an inclusive environment that is welcoming to everyone.”
The Queerest Grocery Store in the World?
A case can be made that Rainbow is the queerest grocery store in the world. The goals as previously stated align with LGBTQ+ efforts concerning economic, racial, and social justice. The cooperative was symbolized by a rainbow three years before Gilbert Baker created the first rainbow Pride flag and likely influenced Baker’s decision about the image and what it represents, especially in terms of diversity.
Many members of the cooperative are openly LGBTQ+. How many grocery stores actually close for Pride because so many workers and shoppers attend the parade and festival? For Rainbow, Pride merits that level of importance, which puts community gains over the day’s potential financial profits.
Think of any major LGBTQ+ nonprofit and small business in the Bay Area, and there is a good chance that Rainbow has helped to support them in some way. In just the past few months, the co-op has supported the San Francisco LGBT Center’s Pride Well Being Fair, the San Francisco Dyke March, and much more.
And then there are the products that Rainbow carries. Many come from LGBTQ+ owned small farms and businesses. Here is just a partial list:
• Diaspora Co.;
• Equator Coffee;
• Queer Wave Coffee;
• Hey Boo;
• Rancho Gordo;
• Pipcorn;
• Humphry Slocombe;
• Firefly Cheese;
• Nuts for Cheese;
• Uncreamery;
• Cowgirl Creamery;
• Dr. Brew Kombucha;
• Transfigure Print Co.;
• The Found;
• Tom Of Finland Spirits;
• Almanac Beer;
• Eco Terreno;
• Terah sparkling wine.
Environmental Stewardship
The cooperative has extremely high standards in selecting products to carry, and those outweigh limiting factors such as whether or not a business is LGBTQ+ owned. Sustainability is incorporated into every aspect of the business. This includes the products, receipts, packaging, and anything else that might add to the ecological footprint.
In terms of products, some of our San Francisco Bay Times team members are big fans of Kalona Supernatural dairy goods. (No, Kalona doesn’t advertise with us. We wish!) These items used to be widely available in markets, but then Whole Foods and others stopped selling them or reduced the selection. At the heart of Kalona are about 60 family farms with an average of 35 cows per herd and the farms are owned mostly by Amish and Mennonite families for generations. The farmers help to rejuvenate soil, protect watersheds, and store carbon. Because of this, they are considered to be Verified Regenerative by Land to Market (https://www.landtomarket.com/).
Kalona’s gentle, small-batch pasteurization process leads to milks, cheeses, yogurts, and more that preserve the beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and protein—and the flavor. These products are incredibly delicious and Rainbow carries the largest line of them in the entire Bay Area. Rainbow is at the center of a vast ecosystem of businesses like Kalona, helping keep them financially afloat and creating a more direct farm to table connection for consumers.
Regarding receipts, Rainbow uses BPA and BPS-free register receipts. BPA and BPS are endocrine-disrupting substances that can be easily absorbed into the skin. Rainbow even has phenol-free receipts that are manufactured using vitamin C instead of phenols, and therefore have a natural yellow tint. Digital receipts are, of course, always an option too.
And it almost goes without saying that Rainbow has been at the forefront of advocating for environmentally-friendly bags, when bags are needed. Thankfully, consumers in general have gotten better about reducing the need for bags and now often bring in their own reusable bags for their hauls. For when bags are needed, Rainbow offers compostable Biobags that are mostly made out of non-GMO plant-based materials like bamboo and corn. The bags even “breathe,” permitting ethylene gas released by produce to be released and thereby improving storage.
Lessons for Democracy
Democracy at its root is a system where power is held by the people. Many political analysts believe the U.S. has been shifting more to an oligarchy or plutocracy, where mostly wealthy people call the shots. On a more personal scale, individual workers often feel powerless and stressed as they may lack autonomy and experience unfair and biased treatment.
Rainbow is one of a handful of local longstanding successful cooperatives—the Cheeseboard Collective in Berkeley is another—that is inherently democratic because it puts control and decision-making into the hands of workers, promotes the “one member, one vote” principle, and fosters the values of self-help and solidarity. It serves as a model for economic democracy that can lead to better wages, greater employee empowerment, enhanced job satisfaction, and community wealth.
Does that model always work? Definitely not. Like the Summer of Love, many cooperatives such as the aforementioned Berkeley Co-op (not to be confused with the still-thriving Cheeseboard) ended because of political infighting, expansion that was too rapid, failure to come to a consensus, and other problems. The members of the Rainbow collective over the years have faced similar difficult challenges but, with great tenacity and hard work, managed to overcome them.
Since Rainbow Grocery helps strengthen small businesses and the entire local community, its success goes far beyond 1745 Folsom Street. It gives hope and possibly even a blueprint for a near-timeless approach to better reaching democratic ideals. At the very least, Rainbow has some of the tastiest food around that nourishes both the body and soul.
And where else under one roof can you find Lesbian feta cheese (made from cows on the island of Lesbos), chocolate bars festooned with prancing unicorns (Omnom from Iceland), and a rosé (Eco Terreno) celebrating Pride? We therefore invite you to join us in giving an enthusiastic queer cheer to Rainbow Grocery for its big “five-oh!” and invite you to visit the San Francisco Bay Times booth at the upcoming 50th Anniversary Block Party on Sunday, August 17, 2025.
Rainbow Grocery at 50
Published on August 14, 2025
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