Yesenia Ochoa grew up just five blocks away from Rainbow Grocery. She remembers it as “the weird store” of her childhood; the place where her family could always find flor de jamaica and other hard-to-source ingredients.
Today, Ochoa works there. She considers the San Francisco co-op a “community center without being a community center.” Every day she runs into people from her past: Former teachers, a childhood principal.
In a city shaped by constant reinvention, Rainbow Grocery Cooperative stands as a rare constant. It has not only survived but thrived with its radical, worker-owned model intact. As it approaches its 50th anniversary, the co-op is planning a public block party Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, from noon to 6 p.m.
Ellen Quain, 71, a longtime shopper, remembers the 1980s, when Rainbow operated out of its 15th Street storefront.
“My kids were little, so I would buy the bulk products there,” she said. “I have moved around a lot, but when I was close enough, I would come and shop here.” She still drops in when she’s nearby, browsing for a natural scrubber and some really great chocolate bars.
What keeps her coming back, she said, is trust.
“The prices are good, and if I’m not mistaken, their policy is to charge a certain percentage over what it costs them, so I trust that I am getting a good deal, and I trust that it is all organic.”
Now located at the border of the Mission District and SoMa, Rainbow sits in a neighborhood shaped by change. Just a short walk from Division Street, it is surrounded by big-box stores such as FoodsCo, Total Wine and Best Buy — corporate chains that represent everything Rainbow resists.
The co-op has anchored its current storefront on Folsom Street since 1996, continuing to stand out on purpose.
Founded in 1975 amid the upheaval of the loosely affiliated People’s Food System, Rainbow was born from the same spirit that fueled food-justice movements such as the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast Program and the San Francisco Food Conspiracy.
These were grassroots buying clubs in which friends or political allies pooled resources to purchase bulk food directly from distributors in an effort to bypass the industrial food system and offer access to the kind of fresh, unprocessed ingredients that weren’t available at many grocery stores at the time.
“Food is always a political issue,” said Gordon Edgar, Rainbow’s longtime cheese buyer, who began working at the store in 1994. “But it was especially politicized in those days.”
Edgar, now 57, has spent 30 years behind the counter and among the shelves of the co-op, where customers are often greeted by name and recommendations come with a story.
“I love curating the cheese case, but it’s really the relationships with customers that make this place what it is.” Edgar has regulars whose cheese preferences he knows by heart.
The co-op traces its roots back to two small storefronts near 16th Street: A food store and a general store, originally run by volunteers receiving a $50 weekly stipend, the equivalent of about $310 today.
Rainbow Grocery is a worker-owned cooperative, meaning its employees collectively own and democratically manage the business. Each worker-owner has an equal vote in major decisions, reflecting the co-op’s founding values of equality and shared responsibility.
Though modest in scale, the stores were backed by a bold idea: That food could be distributed ethically and labor could be organized without hierarchy. The concept attracted idealists, activists and those united by shared spiritual values.
“That part of the Mission wasn’t the greatest,” co-op worker/owner Pat Seguin told Mission Local in an interview about Rainbow’s 40th anniversary. “A lot of people couldn’t afford clean, healthy food, nutritious food.”
While other food conspiracies fractured under the weight of ideological divisions and internal conflict, Rainbow endured.
By 1984, it consolidated into a single storefront at 15th and Mission streets, and in 1996 moved to its current location at 1745 Folsom St., at the intersection of 13th and Folsom streets. Today, it remains one of the few surviving cooperatives from that original network.
“We own the building now,” Edgar said. “That’s a big part of how we’ve stayed in the Mission, and how we plan to stay.”
Beyond being a grocery store, Rainbow is a radical experiment in workplace democracy.
Everyone who works at Rainbow is an owner. After nine months on the job, new hires pay a $10 fee to become voting members of the cooperative. There is no CEO. Wages are equal, regardless of job title. Departments self-govern and hire their own.
B.P., 28, has worked at Rainbow for two years and says he values being in a place where he agrees with the ethics.
“I love that I don’t have a boss and that everyone is equal,” he said. “I have health insurance, and all the money goes back to the employees.”
Rainbow shares profits equally at the end of each fiscal year. For out-of-town shoppers like Robin Nash, 77, Rainbow’s values matter just as much as its product range. Visiting from Chicago, Illinois, she and her husband stop by when in town to buy honey, bulk cocoa, dried beans, and refillable sunscreen.
“People are so friendly and knowledgeable, and don’t mind helping me find something when I need it,” she said.“I like that they focus on non-meat organic produce and products you just can’t get anywhere else.”
Walk through the aisles of Rainbow and you’re bound to witness moments that feel more like neighborhood reunions than retail exchanges. “I even remember Benjamin Bratt’s dad shopping here,” Edgar said. “His brother made a movie with a scene where a character pulls out snacks from Rainbow. It’s part of the local lore.”
At a time when community institutions are increasingly priced out, Rainbow’s continued presence is more than a retail story — it’s a political one, a cultural one, and perhaps most of all, a hopeful one.
“We plan to still be here,” Edgar said. “We’re proud to be in the Mission. We feel part of the Mission.”
The 50th anniversary block party on Aug. 17 from noon to 6 p.m. will take place on Trainor Street between 13th and 14th streets and between Folsom and Trainor streets, with streets closed to through traffic from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
“We own the building now,” Edgar said. “That’s a big part of how we’ve stayed”
This. The commercial landlords don’t think twice about squeezing local businesses, even long-standing and historic ones, right on out for a few % more. They refuse to lower rents even at 50% vacancy rates, they double and treble rents at every single opportunity and result in turnover and ever-rising tides for every single SFian.
If you are a business and you do not own your building in SF, you are circling a drain fueled by greed and PE speculation that Dan Lurie and Co fully worships at the altar of. When by some odd miracle these small businesses survive despite the odds and the sucking sound, celebrate and reward them like a local ought to.
MEDA’s remit was to insulate Mission businesses from the ravages of speculation and gentrification. Helping businesses buy their buildings would eliminate any dependency relation to the nonprofit, so that never happened.
Fresh from that colossal failure, MEDA moved into the affordable housing business. Luis Granados, ED of MEDA, pulled in $363K in 2023.
So many resident-serving Mission businesses that have survived still hang by a thread, while the commuter CEO pulls down serious money.
Rainbow is the resounding success story. Rainbow is democratically run, worker owned, community serving and stabilized by not depending on sketchy city funded nonprofits for support.
My favorite Rainbow story dates to the grocery on 16th Street. It was 1976 and I was a new shopper at the store looking at the labels on the big wooden barrels that stood in the middle of the store. There was flour of all kinds but I wanted sugar for baking. “where do you keep the sugar?” I asked one of the Rainbow workers and the reply was akin to one of the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers with the arm pointing accusingly at me and a look of horror on their face. In those days sugar was a no-no at Rainbow that came out of the food movement at the time (that I wasn’t aware of!) between the food purists into only selling healthy foods versus the community oriented people who wanted to meet people where they were at. Rainbow started as the former but this baker is glad they shifted to the latter. Rainbow shopper for 49 years!
Besides avoiding sugar, Rainbow did not sell coffee or chocolate in the early days. They offered a chicory beverage, & honey. Your sandwich had so bean sprouts & a side of green juice.
I would say Rainbow is a descendant of the Berkeley Co-op Grocery store. My health food nut mom used to drive through the tunnel to shop there. They had a kiddie corral, where someone would watch your kids while you shopped. Try to imagine that happening today.
Private equity ran out of big box stores to buy & plunder, so they are buying veterinary & plumbing businesses. We need more co-ops!
I belonged to the Berkeley Coop, and was sad to see that it did work and went under, even though it was a brilliant concept. Still wonder, where my shares went.
“Besides avoiding sugar, Rainbow did not sell coffee or chocolate in the early days.”
A far bigger omission is that they do not sell meat or fish.
Love. It!
And for we shoppers of a vintage to have gone there early on, know that Rainbow remains one of the few places in town that still offers a 10% senior discount. Just remember to ask at checkout.
Rainbow also has the best selection of olives in the city. And a cheese section that is a gourmet’s dream.
“Rainbow sits in a neighborhood shaped by change. Just a short walk from Division Street, it is surrounded by big-box stores such as Whole Foods, Safeway and Trader Joe’s”
None of those stores are a “short walk” from Rainbow. However its location is very close to some big box stores: Best Buy, Costco, Total Wine and Foods Inc.
David —
You are correct! We wrote down the wrong stores.
JE
And Rainbow is ON Division (13th) Street, where the main entrance / bike racks/ the parking lot is located
On a sad note, Judy Davis, a stalwart Rainbow staffer and manager over the decades, died two weeks ago. She’s survived by her daughter, Sarah, stage manager for events like Hardly Strickly, and grandchildren. Farewell, Judy, with many memories of an era full of good times and plenty of heart.
Judy was my neighbor, on 25th street and her daughter was baby sitter for my God children, after I got too busy to watch them. She was also music impresario- Chet Helm’s life long partner. I loved her exotic backyard, which was lovely decorate by several of the suppliers from Rainbow, where she worked in the cosmetic dept for years-Rock on Judy!!
What a refreshing contrast to the Phils news from earlier this week.
The best thing about Rainbow Grocery is that it’s completely vegetarian. I don’t have to see any meat when I’m looking for my groceries.
PM,
I can understand somebody choosing to not buy or eat meat. But why does the mere act of seeing meat offend you so? I am not offended by fruit and vegetables.
There is nothing about being an organic or wholefood store that precludes meat or fish. In fact WholeFoods have counters for fresh meat and fish, as well as frozen.
My Noe Valley neighbor Judy Davis, who was a long time Rainbow Grocery employee, in the makeup dept., and partner of music impresario-Chet Helms, went towards the music on Friday August 1. Her backyard, where she hosted bar-be-ques, during the pandemic, was exotically decorate, from gifts from various suppliers of Rainbow, and my yoga teacher Oscar worked at Rainbow for years. I’m so glad that Rainbow is a fabric of the city.