A New Green Group Forms in Victoria
Sep 10, 2009
(Douglas Staff) VICTORIA - It sounds like a farm, but the Green Collective is a group of retailers in Victoria who sell “sustainable products with green values.”
That’s the claim they make together in their new brochure, pale green of course, that lists a dozen stores and a map of how to find them.
The marketing effort began five years ago as a group advertising buy to multiply the power of the print ads they could buy, says Bill Finley of Hemp & Co., one of the first four. The others were Fiber Options, Narnia Farms and Granola Groovy (now Good Planet.)
“We all it ‘co-opetition,’” says Finley, whose store competes on some things with other members of the collective, but believes working together creates more business for all of them.
The initial group has been joined by Organic Spa and Free Spirit Botanicals on lower Johnson Street, Not Just Pretty and Plenty in the 1000-block Fort Street, Good Planet Baby store, Knotty by Nature, Organic Spa, Hair Garden Salon and the Soap Exchange.
The expanded brochure also has a list of the group’s “favourite green eateries,” who don’t pay for the privilege but have agreed to display the pamphlet, says Finley.