Rainbow Grocery Cooperative has turned its produce section into an impromptu concert venue, filming local bands playing short sets among the fruit stands after the Mission District store closes for the night. The worker-owned natural foods store's new online series, called Under the Rainbow, posted its first episode to YouTube on September 2, and musicians can submit to play in the series.
The idea traces back to a viral trend out of Delaware. KQED reported that Rainbow Grocery board member and PR team member Aldo de la Cruz-Falcon drew inspiration from a Latino grocery store there that had begun showcasing Tiny Desk-style performances. That store, Fiesta Fresh Market, is a Latino grocery in Delaware whose concerts went viral earlier in the year. De la Cruz-Falcon drew inspiration from those performances, and Rainbow's series followed.
Rather than open the doors to a live crowd during business hours, organizers settled on filming each episode Saturday evenings after the store closes. Co-op organizers determined that managing live crowds during operating hours presented logistically daunting challenges for a working grocery store, so the series exists purely as a digital production rather than an in-person venue.
A Power Pop Debut and a Family Connection
The inaugural episode featured local power pop trio NOW covering The Clash's “Lost in the Supermarket,” a fittingly on-theme song choice for a set filmed among Rainbow's shelves. NOW's drummer, Oliver Lipton, has his own tie to the store: his father worked as a Rainbow employee back in the 1980s, adding a generational thread between the co-op's worker community and the musicians now playing in its aisles.
Future episodes are set to feature shoegaze-inflected indie pop collective April Magazine, gothic cumbia crooner Edgar, and folk punk singer Ryan Modee, according to KQED, which listed the lineup's range. Rainbow plans to air new episodes on its social media channels every other week.
De la Cruz-Falcon said the series aims to give any kind of musician a platform and that Rainbow is accepting submissions. He described the response as overwhelmingly positive, and said the concert series is intended to bring joy to the community during hard times.
Fifty Years Rooted in the Mission
Grassroots organizers opened the original storefront on 16th Street in the Mission District in 1975, part of the “People's Food System,” a network of worker-owned, anti-capitalist food collectives founded by local activists and followers of a Haight Street ashram, according to the San Francisco Bay Times. The store later moved to Folsom Street; more than 100 new workers joined in 1997, the outlet reports.
That current Folsom Street building is owned outright by the co-op, a status leadership credits with helping Rainbow remain in the neighborhood, according to Mission Local. San Francisco added Rainbow Grocery Cooperative to its Legacy Business Registry in 2021, formally recognizing it among the long-standing independent establishments considered part of the city's cultural fabric, per the San Francisco Bay Times.
The co-op marked its 50th anniversary in August 2025 with a community block party on 14th Street, featuring local musicians, food giveaways, and the unveiling of a new Afro-Futurist mural by artist Paul Lewin, as 48 Hills reported at the time. The co-op's milestone anniversary celebration also received coverage.
Rainbow Grocery prioritizes local food makers and gives local vendors opportunities to place products on its shelves, and its latest venture into produce-aisle concert filming folds neatly into that mission, giving Bay Area musicians a stage while reinforcing the co-op's identity as something distinct from a corporate grocery chain.
