Membership

Why there are two different prices?

All our goods are labeled with two different price tags: One for our members and the other for non-members. Our membership option makes sense for customers who come to do their daily grocery shopping and who want to engage with us in the long run. We’re benefiting economically from your monthly membership fee and your regular purchases, so we pass it back to you by lowering the prices.

Who are you, anyway?

We are a group of old and new faces who have taken over Bioase44 from the two former owners. Since October 2022, we continue to run this more than ten-year-old neighborhood organic food store as a collective. That means we work without bosses, but with joint decisions and responsibilities. We maintain and continue the established relationships and values of the founders, and at the same time set new accents! :-)

Ok, so how does it work?

There’s a regular and a reduced monthly membership fee. The fee amounts to 19€ or 13€ per person, respectively (customers with less than 1.000€ net monthly are eligible for the latter option. Please note that in this case we need some kind of proof for that).
Every additional member of your household (older than 14 yrs) amounts to an additional 13€ or 10€ each. Furthermore, there’s an option to pay an increased monthly fee of 20-25€ as a solidarity contribution.
You will get a non-transferable membership card which will enable you to buy your groceries at reduced prices. There’s also an option for a trial month in case you want to try it out beforehand – in this case you’ll pay your one time monthly fee without the “startbetrag”.

Oh wait, what’s this “startbetrag”?

If you’re paying a regular fee there is a one time payment of 50€, 30€ for the reduced fee, respectively, and an additional amount of 30€ for each additional member of your household. You can see it as a kind of loan (without interest), so we can finance our purchases upfront. In the event of cancellation, we’ll regard this sum as a kind of deposit. When all of your dues are paid and you return your membership card(s), you will get back this “startbetrag”. Your membership may be terminated with 4 weeks’ written notice before the end of each month.

Does the membership model always makes sense?

The price disparity differs depending on the product group. The following estimates can be seen as rough guidelines: With a weekly average purchase of around 30-50€ per person, our membership model would be the cheaper option for you. That means, you will get all the products cheaper in comparison to other bio supermarkets, and in addition you will be supporting a local kiez-shop! :-)
In order to maintain the shop and this model it’s vital that everyone who benefits from this model is also an actual member and they only shop for their own needs.

If you are interested we’ll be happy to greet you in the shop and we’ll take it from there! :-)