This season, a new solidarity pricing model is being implemented at the Market! Come visit us on the square of Frontenac metro station to experience this new formula, which aims to build solidarity and food security in our community. By purchasing from the Marché Solidaire Frontenac, you are now not only helping to support our local producers, with 100% of the food on our shelves sourced from Quebec farmers, but you are also supporting food access for everyone in the Montreal community. The new pricing system aims to be more equitable and more accessible, and thus reinforce our values and objectives as a social enterprise. This change is an important step in the Market’s evolution!
What is Solidarity Pricing?
The Marché Solidaire Frontenac’s new pricing system is based on principles of social and economic fairness. Here, you can choose your price at the checkout according to your means. As a non-profit organization, we already reinvest all profits from our sales back into the project and the community to improve access to fresh, local food while respecting dignity, autonomy, and choice. Solidarity pricing goes a step further to facilitate community support and active participation in neighbourhood life.
How does Solidarity Pricing Work?
Two prices are displayed on each product label. At the checkout, you choose your price from the two totals.
- The Full Price: This price is what makes this social economy project work. A portion of the profit is reinvested to subsidize the Solidarity Price, while the remainder covers the Market’s operating costs.
- The Solidarity Price: This price makes food more accessible when you need it. It is reduced and subsidized.
Why Now?
Since the opening of our 3 Paniers Alternative Grocery Store on Sainte-Catherine Street East, many of you have asked us: “When will solidarity pricing be available at the Marché?” We asked ourselves the same question! We needed a little time to get to know the innovative 3-tiered pricing model implemented at 3 Paniers when it opened in 2022 before we could be confident in recommending it elsewhere. Three years later, we’re more than ready to say: Solidarity pricing works!
This winter, with the expert help of MCE Conseils, and thanks to funding from PME MTL Centre-Ville and the support of the CDC Centre-Sud through the City of Montreal’s Inclusive and Resilient Neighbourhoods project, we had the opportunity to study in depth the results of 3 Paniers’ pricing model, while considering the distinct realities of the Marché. With all that in mind, we then invented a pricing model that would be most conducive to success at the Marché. We came away with a lot of learnings, and a 2-tier solidarity pricing model for the Market, which we are now experimenting with! Many thanks to Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions for the help that is allowing us to experiment with this innovation!
👉 Learn more by visiting the Marché Solidaire Frontenac’s page.
Thanks to our Funding Partners on this Project !
