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Won’t Work for FoodHorror stories of the country’s largest member-owned cooperative grocery store |
W hen my husband and I moved from Manhattan to Park Slope, Brooklyn, last year, people would inevitably ask, “So, are you going to cave in and join the Coop?” They meant the Park Slope Food Coop, the largest member-owned and -operated co-op in the country. Something between an earthy-crunchy health food haven and a Soviet-style reeducation camp, the Coop offered great groceries at low prices but required its members to work in the store for the privilege of shopping there. No way were we joining.
But I soon found that Park Slope, a yuppified, leafy neighborhood 20 minutes from downtown Manhattan, was a wasteland when it came to perishables. It has chef-driven restaurants and slinky boutiques, but try to find a crisp apple and you’re out of luck. I went to some delis, but the fruit and veggies were strategically wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam to hide soft spots. Blue Apron, a terrific specialty shop, had fancy chocolates and artisanal bread but no meat or produce. There was no produce at our local farmer’s market in the winter. And I discovered that the fruits and vegetables from Fresh Direct, a grocery delivery service, were anything but. I was seemingly out of options.
Enter the Coop. Organic blueberries and entire grass-fed steers, purchased directly from local farmers. Big, leafy watercress. Uncommon items like azuki beans and flaxseed in the bulk section. And it was cheap. You could walk out with 12 items in your string bag for $17, the tip for an average meal in Manhattan.
We joined.
I walked into the Coop for new-member orientation, I found a shopping experience stripped of all consumerist sheen: dim, warehouse-style lighting; narrow aisles; members grumbling to each other about the endless lines. Upstairs, I took my place among some 40 other prospective shoppers in rows facing a woman with a video projector.
“We work every four weeks, not every month. Does everyone understand the difference?” the woman with the projector said in a baby voice, enunciating every word. Not everyone did. Shifts were 2.75 hours, she continued, and every single adult member of the household had to do them. No buying out of it, no family plans. I realized I would be required to work my husband’s shift, too, as he worked full time at an office job and I worked from home.
I asked if I could have a nonphysical task because of back pain. She interrupted, “If you have a medical problem, your physician can give us a note.” I signed up to work two shifts in the office.
Two weeks later, I arrived at the Coop’s check-in desk with my new ID card for what I thought was my first scheduled work shift. One of the scanner people told me, “You’re on alert for work, and Tom is on alert for orientation.” I was flabbergasted. I knew my husband had shirked the new-member orientation, but I thought I was following all the rules.
“But I’m here to work my first shift,” I said.
“No, you missed your first shift,” the guy told me. “This is your second shift.” Now, I was told, I would have to work two shifts for the one I missed as punishment.
I climbed the stairs to the office. My job was to answer the phone, which rang every 20 seconds with questions from members confused about their work shifts. These were impossible to answer. To find a member’s record, one had to look through a loose-leaf binder with hundreds of pages, organized not by the member’s name or number but by “A” shift, “B” shift,” and “C” shift on a particular date.
Finally, at the end of the shift I was allowed to shop. I cruised the wide, verdant aisles, where great produce was being caringly watered down. I put beautiful bananas from South America in my cart, along with blueberries, apples, cashews, and almonds. Now I faced my biggest challenge yet: leaving.
First there was the scanning line. I learned that I was expected to remember whether my items were organic, though no signs had been posted instructing me to do this. When I admitted I didn’t know the status of my apples, the grocery scanning lady yelled at me, “Well, go find out! You’re holding up the line!” I ran as fast as I could.
“How many bags?” Scanner Lady squawked when I returned, and I looked at her blankly. Turns out I was expected to estimate the number of bags I would need for my groceries before I would be allowed to receive the bags and put groceries in them myself. After I got my bags and a slip of paper that had the number of bags I’d been given written on it, I stood in a second line, where I paid. Relieved, I walked out. People started screaming. “Hey, HEY!” They thought I was stealing. I turned and saw the checkout person at the door who looks at your receipt and checks the number of bags against your bag slip, then stamps your papers so that you can exit.
“How many bags?” Scanner Lady squawked.
Outside, a member offered to roll out my cart for me, before learning that I lived outside the approved six-block cart-helping-out radius.
Shaken, I trudged home with my great produce.
The Coop wasn’t always so nuts. It was founded in 1973 by 10 people who wanted to save money on groceries. At the beginning, they had hanging scales and calculators by the door, and people just weighed their stuff, added it up, paid, and left. The maze of lines was put in place by 1980 to put a stop to thievery, which was becoming a problem, says founder Joe Holtz.
The stringent work requirements and penalties for skipping are essential, maintains Holtz, to make the place run. “We grew from 5,000 [members] in 2001 to 13,000 in 2006, so there should be an economy of scale. But we get bigger shipments, checkout takes longer, and bathrooms get dirtier faster. Most of the work, as you grow, grows with it.” Why not let nonmembers just pay more? “You can feel work but you can’t feel money,” says Holtz.
I thought about ways to cheat the system. I could say my husband left me, so I wouldn’t have to work his shift too. Declaring how many adults live in your household is done on the honor system. So the Coop would have no way of knowing. But then I had an O’Henry moment: What if my husband really did then leave me?
Meanwhile, Fairway, a Manhattan grocery superstore known for its great selection and low prices, opened a branch in Red Hook, Brooklyn. For many neighbors, this changed everything. Except not for me, because Red Hook was a 15-minute drive, and we had no car. Whole Foods was supposedly opening a branch soon, just a quarter-mile from our apartment. Then they decided to delay the opening several years. They haven’t even broken ground.
I quit less than three months after joining the Coop. Like somebody in a bad relationship, I started finding fault everywhere I looked. The organic blueberries were a little on the squishy side. The cheddar cheese always seemed to be low. But the real reason was that the trouble outweighed the advantages.
One day, I just never went back.
Now I beg Tom to stop by Whole Foods in Manhattan before getting on the subway home. That means he has to carry all the groceries with his work stuff and gym clothes the 15-minute walk back to our place from the station. It’s a lot of work. But it’s the kind of work that makes sense. And when he walks in the door with fresh, juicy pears, I make sure never to scream, “You’re on alert!”
Photographs by Trevor Snapp
This is hard work?...perhaps you're too privileged and a whiner. There are people in far worse situations that work 12 - 14 hour days, and live in an apartment that is the size of your closet, and they still don't make enough money to be able to afford food, so they go to their local soup kitchen or local food bank. Be grateful you live in an area with nice neigborhoods, where people spend more on their rent then some people get paid in 2 or 3 months, where there is a sense of community....hell, where you can get adzuki beans and organic blueberries that don't ask for the soul of your first born. So you had to work for your food *gasp*...what an unusual idea. Your husband had to walk 15 minutes from the subway after having come from a desk job and the gym? Get a small wire cart, and he can stash it in his office--problem solved. Couldn't go to the Fairway, because you didn't have a car? Take the subway...it may shock you, but *hundreds* of people do this. And the next time you want to complain (even in jest) about your unfortunate luck in having to move to such an "incovenient" area, remember that about a 1/3 of New York City's children and adults live below the poverty level, and cannot buy food at all.
Touche.
(Though this site *is* directed at a specific audience, and its purpose is probably not to make readers feel guilty about their social class. If chow.com was all about dealing with poverty in NYC, you can guess how popular it would be.)
Cheftoni is right that the Co-op has a lot to be grateful for, but nobody--well-off or not--should have to deal with this kind of bureaucratic hassle. I've shopped at the Co-op a couple of times on friends' "guest passes," and those checkout people are unnecessarily evil!
And I think this article really speaks to the difficulty of finding and getting good produce in NYC, no matter what your income level. It's obviously a thousand times harder if you live in Stapleton or Harlem (where there just aren't any stores selling the stuff, period) than it is if you're in Park Slope, but finding a good, nearby place to get produce that won't take a huge chunk out of your budget is really difficult even in fairly affluent neighborhoods. Even most of the little independent "health food" stores charge an arm and a leg for mealy apples and shrink-wrapped broccoli.
I laughed my butt off at this story- it's so true. I was a member of the co-op for about 2 months. My first shift was an evening shift that coincided with the first bombings against Iraq (of the current Gulf War). I would have liked to hear Diane's thoughts on the "Soviet-style reeducation camp" nature of the coop as it relates to personal politics. I found it to be a very political place- with the overwhelming feeling that members are presumed to share the same political views. I prefer my food shopping without that kind of baggage.
And those bags that they make such a fuss over- I think they cost a nickel apiece.
Good lord!
...for the privilege of shopping there???
If I had to endure the nightmare you described for fresh produce, I'd settle for less than crisp apples and other veggies wrapped in plastic. No way.
FYI on the first comment, hundreds of people are in fact *not* taking the subway to the Fairway in Red Hook. No train or bus service there as of the present.
A great piece! Made me laugh out loud...
Truly hilarious. Nothing is funnier to watch than people taking themselves too seriously (take note, Cheftoni). Co-ops are a legendarily great place for this, but this one seems to take the cake (all organic, of course).
I actually am a member of the legendary coop and much like the reader find myself in a love/hate relationship with the place, but I have to defend the role of the checkout worker - since I AM one - I'm fair and fast and never demand to know how many bags someone will be using before they've done their grocery packing. That's just misinformation. Mostly the coop offers great produce at great prices with a lot of weird characters who troll the aisles, but really? where else are you going to shop in this neighborhood? Where else can you readily and regularly support local farms and organic ones, at that... for a fraction of the cost AND have your groceries walked home by someone that you don't have to tip? I'll grumble my way through my membership, thank you, and if you all should ever chance another trip to the coop, be a little more open to the experience.
This is the third article I've seen where someone pops into the Coop for a month to write a bitchy uninformed article about it, throwing around Stalin references for effect. It's tedious, and I expect better from a food site.
Lucky me, I live in Brooklyn and can walk to a buying cooperative that has cheap prices because it is a not a commercial venture. There is a paid staff with health insurance and a retirement plan. I have crisp apples from a NY farm and fresh wild salmon fedex'd from Alaska for $7.50 a pound that I can trust actually IS wild salmon. It's as if the Greenmarket is open 7 days a week AND the markup is only 22%.
The place is clean. The food is of spectacular quality because the entire stock rotates every week - nothing is dusty on the shelves because it sells or moves out to a soup kitchen. The Coop changes with the times, adding organic lamb/beef/pork/rabbit a couple years ago. The Coop has a very respectable beer and fancy cheese selection, and constantly updating product line. Goat butter, plugra, harissa, and tomato vinegar have a place along with granola, bulk beans, and local tofu. What's the problem again?
All I have to do is enjoy three hours a month operating a cash register or bagging raisins in the basement while I listen to the music, or walking people home with their groceries so the cart can return to the store. No hardship there - it's actually relaxing...
I wish that someone would write an article about how NOT terrible the Coop is. I've been shopping there for 2 years now and while there are some crazies, usually people are really helpful and friendly. I too work the checkout line and I'm pretty fast, talk to people if they want to be talked to or just politely ring them up. Sure, bad experiences can happen (when you're dealing with a store that has 13,000+ members shopping, it's inevitible), but when were you last given great service at a Key Foods or C-Town? For someone who loves to cook and doesn't have a ton of money to spend at Whole Foods, the Coop rocks.
This is so funny. Cue the Internationale!
The food lineup at the Co-op is great, and fresh.
The operating system has a lot to be desired. I tried it, hated it, and moved on. It just doesn't fit my lifestyle.
Like many of the stereotypes rampant in the People's Republic of Park Slope, the Co-op will continue to flourish. Great. We all like choices, and the ability to make them.
FYI if you study the Brooklyn bus system you can take the MTA to Fairway in Red Hook.
There are buses to the Fairway in Red Hook. The last stop on the B61 is about a block from it and the B77 is 2-3 blocks from it.
I considered joining the PS Food Coop but decided to wait for the Fairway -I'm glad I did!
Just go to Union Market on the corner of Union St. and Sixth Avenue. It's got everything! I'm an ex-coop member myself and I still haven't been by to get my "investment" back because I'm scared of what a pain it will be.
This story is full of miscoceptions and fabrications.
1." I asked if I could have a nonphysical task because of back pain. She interrupted, “If you have a medical problem, your physician can give us a note.” I signed up to work two shifts in the office."
As a squad leader, it is a rule if a member has a medical issue, we are obligated to find them a job that they feel comfortable with. From reading this, it sounds like that's exactly what they did for her. They provided here with an office job. So the the phone rang a lot, thats the point of an office job.
2. Described the coop as having "dim, warehouse-style lighting; narrow aisles"
the coop was recently ronovated and is actually quite nice, this is not true. thye facility is well lit, clean and as nice as anyone supermkt I can think of.
3. I knew my husband had shirked the new-member orientation, but I thought I was following all the rules
you knew the membership rules when you signed up so what the hell are you complaining about. you are waisting everyones time.
4. you say, "I cruised the wide, verdant aisles"
wait, i thought they were narrow a minute ago.
5. you say, learned that I was expected to remember whether my items were organic, though no signs had been posted instructing me to do this. When I admitted I didn’t know the status of my apples, the grocery scanning lady yelled at me, “Well, go find out! You’re holding up the line!” I ran as fast as I could."
isn't better that the organic produce is avalable loose so your not forced to buy a 5lb bag of potatoes like whole foods? In addition, you are judging the coop on one checkout person, one of 13,000 members? Totally ridiculous.
6. you say, "The organic blueberries were a little on the squishy side."
have fun at key food.
Union Market is nice, but it's prices are much closer to Whole Foods than the Coop.
Please, no one deserves to be hassled for some groceries.
BREAKING: Precious Manhattanite with allegedly weak back and lazy husband (or were you under the impression the other 9,998 people don't have jobs?)finds 10,000 member co-op requires a few rules to function. Film at 11.
Please. Does everybody with a beef about the coop somehow get their hands on some kind of standardized template?
"They told us we had to work a shift every four weeks when I signed up, but then they actually expected me to, like, do work! And when I didn't show up for work, they actually brought it up! Plus, when I went to do my shopping, there were a lot of other people shopping too and i had to wait on line to check out!"
Horror stories indeed. Where do those pinkos get off expecting you to contribute anything (other than cash, that is) in order to get something from the store?
Another item for Josh's list of fabrications:
"I was expected to estimate the number of bags I would need for my groceries before I would be allowed to receive the bags and put groceries in them myself."
Not true. You take teh bags yourself - as many bags as you want. You just tell the checkout person how many you have. The reason for this - and the reason they verify it on the way out the door - is that the coop, like any store in this city, has a problem with theft. Unlike every store in the city, the coop does not respond to these losses by jacking up the price.
I'm sorry. You coop lovers are clearly living in a different world then the rest of us. It may be my Midwestern roots or capitalist affections, but this to me is reason enough never to want to live elsewhere. I understand the idea of a cost effective pricing and work regime where you share burden, a commercial kubutz, but I'll work harder to make up the cost difference.
Y'all need to move to Atlanta so you can shop at "Your DeKalb Farmer's Market." Reading about the stress of finding a fresh apple in Park Slope makes me happy I left New York, LOL.
Really check out the place if you are down here in Georgia: fresh food from all over the world at reasonable cost in a huge setting..
I've belonged to co-ops in other parts of the country and all others let you buy your way out of working and pay staff out of that money. I wonder who is so rigid they refuse to consider that option. I am sure there are folks in Park Slope who could use the work.
"Like somebody in a bad relationship, I started finding fault everywhere I looked."
You said it!
It's evident from this post that you're lost in Brooklyn--everything is measured in its distance from and relationship to Manhattan (Fairway, Whole Foods. . .). The Coop is an institution unique to Brooklyn, and much more like the supermarket you crave than it used to be. Fifteen years ago, when I joined, it opened at 3:30 PM most afternoons, and I'm told that in 1973 it was a place where you preordered food and then pushed your box along the floor to retrieve it.
Like someone who entered a relationship without a real interest in having one, Diane never gave the coop a chance.
That is a fantastic article! Your experience almost entirely mimcs my husband's expeience and mine. Apparently I was on "alert" for not working, when I had just worked 2 days before! I not only worked, but I worked my tail off and actually had fun organizing the shampoo/self care aisle because it was in such disarray. I felt kinda cheated. In addition, while I was shopping, I opened a plastic carton of figs to check them out and I came across a few moldy ones that I put back. My husband looked at me wide-eyed and later told me that 2 women were staring at me like I was the biggest jerk in the world for inspecting the figs! He told me that they had the most disgusted looks on thier faces! So much for a community. They are so dysfunctional and poorly managed we sometimes think it's a pyramid scheme...LOL!
My wife's comment is above. She is cciani. I'd like to add a few things. First off to the gentleman that said this woman is a whiner and it's not hard work...then why doesn't anyone do their job correctly ? The prices and items do not match at the Co-Op and it is rather frustrating when the label says one thing and you go to the Gestapo Board ,otherwise known as the checkout counter, and get yelled at 'cause it's not right.
The Co-Op also is a snob fest. What do I mean ? My wife and I are very liberal. But we are working class and artists. We have day jobs to pay the bills. But we are artists. The Co-Op says all the jobs are easy,blah,blah. If a person who worked for a living came into the Co-Op they would laugh hysterically at the laziness and counter-productive attitude. It's ridiculous.
By the way, my wife and I used to live in Berkeley, California. And even there it was more organized.
One more thing. Being at the Co-Op made me change from a socialist to a person who understands the need for capitalism ( yet with democracy of course ). Socialism doesn't work because of the nature of human beings. Lazy and snobbish if they can get away with it. And stinky too. That "deodorant" they sell is horrible !!
Alternate idea:
Interesting article. My husband and I considered joining the co-op but since we live in Boerum Hill we determined it was too far for us to go to grocery shop (without bikes or a car). We live extremely close to Pathmark but they have some of the worst produce I've ever seen. While looking for an alternative I found out about an organic delivery service called Urban Organic. Every Monday they will deliver a box of in season fresh groceries to your door. You choose the size of the box and also have the option to add a short list of other items. They stand behind their produce too. If you get a bad batch of something you can just email them and they'll send extra produce the following week. It's not a perfect system but it's the best, most convenient and cheapest I've found yet. Go to www.urbanorganic.com to learn more.
my husband and I have been members of the coop for 5 years. We both work, we have 2 small children and a busy life in general. However, we both find working at the coop to be an interesting break from the rest of our lives. Sure, there are crazies, but if you don't take it personal, it's usually sort of funny. For the most part, it is a great way to meet a cross section of Brooklyn that we may ordinarily miss.
Sure, it can be crowded, but there are lots of times when it isn't and shopping is quite easy. I have never encountered hostility in the check out or the office, though I have scene other people get in screaming matches, but I think that problem comes from both parties. (I've also seen people screaming at each other in fairway when some one jumps the line, etc)
The rules at the coop re: paying, bagging, checkout are really quite simple and once you shop a few times, it becomes second nature,
I was ill over the summer, so couldn't work my shift and took a leave of absence (which they made quite easy) and I really missed the coop - especially the produce. There is no comparing it to anything else other than the Greenmarket. My kids eat great and the whole family eats a lot healithier in general.
I hear so many horror stories about the coop, yet I have found it to be a great experience. I think most of the horror stories come from people who start off displeased and are just looking for more reasons to feel inconvenieced and put out by life.
I think the writer had an experience that many of us who are members of the Coop can relate to—but it is not the rule. Though I’m not always happy with the Coop’s implementation, I like most everything the Coop stands for, something I can’t say when shopping at Key Food, Fairway, or even Whole Foods.
As the world becomes more globalized and farms and food production become more corporatized and genetically modified, the Coop model may prove itself to be on the cutting edge of assuring that many people from diverse economic income levels can get access to affordable, high-quality food. It’s not only about prices and health, but sustainability for the earth and for its people, something which capitalism rarely puts at the center of its agenda. The Coop’s imperfect model is not for everybody, but when you realize the true cost of producing food and distributing it, you understand that its local-grown, member-participating model is sane, equitable, and perhaps the planet’s best hope. This to me is totally worth the inconvenience of the store’s mild chaos, occasional “Stalinesque” rebukes, and homey atmosphere.
Mild chaos is an understatement. I absolutely love shopping but every time I have been to the Coop in the past three months since moving to Brooklyn from San Francisco, I have been brought to the brink of tears. The system is more than imperfect but no one is willing to recognize that or make necessary changes. Every empire falls because of its unwillingness to deal with its flaws. The Coop is really not that different from our current government in that way. I agree with all the principles of the Coop, just not the execution of them. And I am more than happy to work for my food, wait in longer lines and shop in a no-frills store: just not the authoritarian-elitist-arrogant one that is the Coop (and not at the expense of my sanity or dignity).
the Park Slope Food Coop ipitomizes PS-I moved
God, how we flyover-country denizens envy you sophisticated New Yorkers and your elevated tastes. (;o
Mike
I have bee a member for going on 30 years.
Sure there are plenty of hastles nd I even stop into Fairways, Whole Foods or
Union Farket every now and then. But I still consider it the only place around
to shop.
>>>remember that about a 1/3 of New York City's children and adults live below the poverty level, and cannot buy food at all.<<<
Really? 2.5 million people in New York City can't buy food at all??? How do they live without eating? Are they Breatharians? This is remarkable and should definitely be covered by the New York Times or, better yet, the World Weekly News.
"ONE THIRD OF ALL NEW YORKERS NEVER EAT!!" AND DON'T DIE!"
That article was funny. Almost as funny as the first comment posted. No one should have to deal with that kind of self-righteous confusion.
Good God - are people really so touchy that standing in a line or meeting a few odd or disagreeable characters deter them from joining the coop? As it had been said many times here, you are getting top quality LOCAL ORGANIC for much lower prices. My husband and I joined the coop 4 years ago. If anything, I feel the coop bends over backwards to help people out - we got a year off work when each of our kids were born (yet we were still allowed to shop). I was very ill this summer and my husband and I were both able to take a leave until I was better. They have babysitting upstairs that member can use when they work OR shop? My family and I eat so much better since we joined the coop - I still occasionally go to Fairway or Union Market or the other places mentioned here, but I can't imagine ever leaving the coop. As for all the nastiness that goes on there, I have never personally experienced it. Sure, there are some oddballs, and I don't always feel like chatting when someone scans my groceries, but I am always nice and polite and in turn people are the same to me.
Wow lots of comments, I've been a member for 19 years. The overall tone of the above article struck me as petty and superficial. I've had my share of nightmare stories. For instance, before the coop had barcode scanners. The lines were unbelievable. But overall it has improved and has been a source of great food at a decent price. The article lacks accuracy. The slope has lots of options for food. There are a number of upscale grocery stores like Back to the Land or Union street market, you may pay more, but you also get decent food. There are a number of great specialty food shops such as Brooklyn Brewery and A&S meat. Even though I hardly shop these places, I appreciate them for the old neighborhood feel they add.
You work from home, yet make your husband go to Whole Foods after his office job? (insert whip cracking sound)
I'm sorry, that can't be right: 13,000 members and they're scheduling them on PAPER? It's called a computer, folks, and it has a wonderful capability to make things a LOT easier for you!
THE PROCESS OF FOOD.
Diane Mehta and everybody else with your head in the sand,
This is an article worthy of Fox News. I suppose you'd prefer Walmart groceries since they offer 'organic' choices, now. I think the type of shopper who reads this article and nods their head approvingly is also the type that goes to Whole Foods to buy organic potato chips, foie gras, drops $.35 into the wildlife conservation fund jar and then drives home in an SUV with a Stop-Global-Warming bumper-sticker on the back, ever so self-content.
Meanwhile, back on Planet Intelligent-thought: one valuable function of the coop, is that it involved all members in the *process* of the food they eat. Let me repeat: The process of food. THE PROCESS OF FOOD.
Are we shocked at the processes of Agriculture business? Antibiotics, inhumane animal conditions, polysorbitatewhatever 34? Why do we have the right to be - we didn't grow the food, didn't slaughter and process it, didn't transport it, didn't store it, and didn't cook it. This rampant disconnect, though necessary to a degree in a culture of specialization, is the basis for most of our problems at large with food.
***This is the difference between eating holistically and eating organically.***
If all you need is to satisfy your desire to eat food which is a brand called organic, you don't need to shop at a coop. You can get your sugar-free organic-chocolate cookies and organic white rice, anywhere. If you are interested in becoming involved with the process by which you consume food, grown locally, the Park Slope coop is one such way.
Wanting to buy cheap, organic, locally grown food without materially participating is like bitching about the government and then not voting.
P.s, yes, the coop is full of obnxious biaches who will literally push you out of the way with their yoga mats and strollers while on their cellphone to get to their goat yogurt because they read that goat yogurt has a special enzyme good for healthy skin. Hell has a special room reserved for them. But this does not detract from the mission and essentially effective execution of the coop.
Can it really be that people continue to compare Stalin and the Gestapo to things like a food coop? Really?
I belong to the coop, and love working there. Sure, the other day I almost scrapped with a woman who refused to move out of my way when I was pushing a cart full of meat, but whatever -- every kind of work has its downside. But there is value to working in order to have the "privilege" of eating cheap, healthy, local food. There is also value in being a part of a community -- even when some of the people in the community suck. No one's saving the world by belonging to the coop, but I do get satisfaction from being one step closer to my food. Also, what no one on here has commented about is that the low set mark-up allows people who don't make a lot of money to join and shop. Beyond that, there's a policy whereby if an organic product costs more than 10% more than non-organic, the coop carries both. Why? So people don't get priced out of the store. So, complain all you like about the park slope yuppies, but you don't have to make a yuppie salary to shop at the coop (for that, see Union Market).
As for "stringent" work requirements -- I work sometimes 70 plus hours a week in my real job and still have time to work at the coop. I simply don't believe that the coop haters out there are so busy that they literally don't have time to work for 2.75 hours every 4 weeks. They just don't have 2.75 hours to do something that they don't want to do (something that's hard?). That's cool -- but then don't complain about an institution that by definition involves work in return for membership. There's no bait-and-switch, people. It's a coop!
It was with great interest that I read this thread on worker food coops. In 1975 I became a manager at the Cambridge Food Coop in Massachusetts. We had 4000 members who worked 2.5 hours a month and we took in @ $2 million dollars in sales a year. Back in the 70's life around the food coops involved more than food costs and nutrition. It was the beginning of what we thought was a new liberated lifestyle and many different projects spun off into the community from the coop's center. We always dealt with many conflicts and contradictions from prosecuting a poor person for theft to college students who refused to mop the floor. But by 1980 everyone stopped cooperating. After 5 years I got burned out and left.
How about joining a CSA?
they are available all over brooklyn and nyc, and support local farmers, and many are organic. We joined one in Bklyn Hts, and every week we go and pick up 2-3 bags of lovely, just-picked organic produce, eggs, fruit and meat. The signup process starts in the fall and spring, and from early June until November you get to enjoy the produce from a local farmer. It's super-easy, very convenient, and actually a pleasure to see what you get every week. We supplement our fruit and veggies (picked just the day before) with trips to green markets and a local butcher on Smith Street. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
http://www.justfood.org/csa/
There is a misconception of the Park Slope Food Coop, primarily advanced by its detractors, that it is a socialistic institution.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The Park Slope Food Coop is really essentially a luxury food buyers' club, one in which the price of the product is kept somewhat more affordable by saving on labor costs by having the members work 2.75 hours in every four week period.
Sure, prices are somewhat lower than if they had to pay a union workforce, but not at all in the price range of the truly poor, a constituency a truly socialistic institution would endeavor to serve.
Yes, the culture of the place is influenced by its left-leaning membership but, as many have stated, that is easy to overlook if you just mind your own business.
What is not as easy to overlook is how poorly suited this urban elite is at working in service-industry jobs. This is not enjoyable, rewarding work, mind you, but the pettiness, arrogance and snippiness is so pervasive that it is virtually comical.
Ultimately, the cost savings in this luxury food club are achieved on the back of the true proletariat, all the union jobs that could be had as cashiers, stockers, baggers, and so forth, jobs that do not exist at the Park Slope Food Coop because they are filled by volunteers.
The Food Coop is what it is. Yes, many of its detractors are impossibly entitled elitists. But I'm not sure that its members, who deny workers in our community decent jobs and living wages, are really much better.
I've been a coop member for a couple years and I have a love/hate relationship with it. Last month I was booted out, despite only owing one make-up shift, because I missed the deadline for making it up, so I started shopping at Union Market. At first I luxuriated in buying such shamelessly gourmet brands and being able to pay with a credit card, but then I had a really unpleasant interaction with their guy behind the deli counter, who mislabeled my food, overcharging me, and the woman at the cash register who couldn't figure out how to key in a new price and kept sending me back to the guy at the deli counter, who got angrier and angrier. Suddenly I missed the overeducated and overqualified people at the checkout line. (Also, I was paying more than twice as much overall, and instead of carrying five brands of top-quality incredibly fresh smoked fish, Union Market only has their tasteless, farmed house brand of salmon.)
So, I don't know. Like living in New York in general, Park Slope grocery shopping is always a little off and a little too exciting and full of compromises. I'm back at the coop for the time being.
I'm genuinely curious as to why the co-op doesn't allow non-members to shop there. The small co-op in my neighborhood sells to everyone, but offers discounts to those that work there. Is there not enough produce? That would be understandable to me, but having to work there to understand how agriculture works doesn't make sense.
I'm amazed at the ferocity of defenders of the co-ops virtue peppered with lines about the privilege of those who can't deal with it. There's nothing about class here.
I've quit the coop. I've got a job that involves sales and training. That's full time + travel, often spilling over to the weekend. I miss shifts, and try to find replacements. I call the squad leader. I've been told that I'd only have to do 1 makeup, but then I'd be given a 2 makeups. Happened twice. 4 shifts just ain't going to happen. I'm a goner.
There's a Future Time Off Program for people like me. But that requries planning and doing early work for the time I might miss. Honestly, if a person can plan that into their life then they're more organized and motivated than I am. God bless you, but it doesn't work for me.
In short, the way work policies are applied are inconsistent, mostly due to the fact that there's turnover among squad leaders, not due to any malevolence.
I hear people saying, "Well I've done it for *years* without any problems." My response: good for you. A job with flexible or regular hours isn't granted to all of us. Schedule uncertainty and long work hours is a familiar situation for New Yorkers of all economic classes. For many of us, the co-op just doesn't work.
Also, customer service is a problem at the co-op. The average shopper/worker gets orientation and little other training. Some people are really nice and helpful. Others are ignorant, rude, or both. This is no surprise. Other than orientation, nobody (other than cashiers) on the shopping floor gets trained.
What a lot of people moving to Park Slope have to deal with is this - the co-op doesn't really want you. It's big enough as it is, and further expansion is going to be a problem. Do don't expect understanding.
I live in the South Slope. There are actually quite a few decent produce options. There's a pretty darn good produce store on 7th Ave. across the street from Divine Taste. There's more on 7th south of 9th street. So, my criticism of the article is that the lack of produce in Park Slope is seriously overblown. I lived in Bushwick before this. In Bushwick, there really is no produce (and this *is* a class issue). In Park Slope you need to go to a couple of places, and figure out who has the best whatever. I get lettuce from the produce store, spinach from the asian grocery down the block, and tomatoes when they're in season (btw, tomatoes can well). It takes a week or two to get it down. That's the way things have always been in the Bedroom Borough.
About the diss of Key Food, by the way: that's some pretty serious snobbery. Lord knows "common people" sure do smell.
Well. I have been a member of the coop for a couple of years. There is no question about the quality of what they carry: wonderful. However, working there is easy to bear when compared to dealing with the merciless rules, the unbearable crowdiness and the bad temper of, uncannily, almost everybody there. Some of the supervisors there are really what we would consider down right mean and just plain bitter and everyone working there is a member coping with the same extreme discipline, so they are not exactly happy. Being a member of the food coop is most definately hard. I question constantly wether I want to continue being on such tight measure to be able to have great food at a cheaper price, and, even though I continue to carry on with it, I still never feel like I am being treated fairly. It always seems like it is the coop doing us a favor by begrudgingly providing us with great stuff, while we just whine, even for those of us who are always on time for our shifts and do the job well.
With new members adding up at the speed of light, it seems sometimes like we plainly don't fit in the store and many of the items are scarce or gone pretty quickly, so it just gets harder to deal with the coop as time goes by. I am always almost ready to quit, and today, as I see the fierce comments of unreasonably angered people here because someone couldn't do it (perfectly, understandable, a healthy choice if I may) I think: "Wow. These angry people are the people who make the coop. No wonder why it is so hard to bear the energy in there."
This might as well be a sign for me to give that step. I should just get everything I need from the kind, smily farmer's themselves at the grand army plaza farmer's market and sigh when recalling the coop's sometimes unbeatable prices. It is important to recognize an unhealthy relationship when you are in it, and get out.
An interesting perspecive. I went in as a vendor and was immediately shut out as they "powers that be" have made an arrangement with their top 2 suppliers to provide about everything. Two of the largest food distributors in the Nation by the way. The logic was that there was less accounts payable and I suspect some payola for sure. I did get in and did a demo and the Manager on Duty would allow my demo but only if I hooked them up with some product for themselves.
Just like socialism. 1. lack of choice 2. Corruption and pay to play 3. long LINES!!!
so with that said, once in there, they sell tons of product and I got to understand the "community". Like family, some members annoy you and you dont agree with them but if you commit to loving and standing by your family, there are incredible benefits. This place is KOOKY but very special and I looked around and was amazed at the prices. I am a capitalist rich on cash and poor on time so those lines are just not an option but if I was on a fixed income or something, you can get some incredible quality foods in there for cheap and a sense of community as well which is what people are really striving for these days.
HA! I've never read someone as whiny and sensitive as this. Everyone in the PS Coop grumbles. No, it's not for everyone. It's member run so of course there will be some rules and problems. But good lord, woman, get a backbone. If you pay attention at orientation, you don't really have much of a problem. So you have to show your ID when you come in, get to your shift on time, count your bags, and show your receipt when you exit. I could think of more difficult things.
i am amazed by all these posts, which i think are a testament to how special the place is. i've been a member for 4 years, and i've grown to love the coop more and more. i don't think that one can make an accurate assessment after 2 months, especially considering that there is a period of acculturation in order to function in a place that defies all our usual conventions about what it means to shop.
i actually find that working and shopping there are have made me a calmer, more patient, and friendlier person. i enjoy working checkout and talking to people about their food and i have never experienced a checkout worker "squawking" at a shopper. the friendly vibes i've absorbed over the years, in conjunction with eating non-toxic, inexpensive, fairly-traded and delicious food, has resulted in a the quality of my life improving remarkably since my pre- coop days. i've made friends there, found a great hair stylist, become a more inspired cook, and solved a number of health problems through dietary changes. now i can afford to eat the way i want to eat.
i rarely shop anywhere else, but recently i went to the met food around the corner for convenience and was startled at how rude THOSE workers were. and of course, they would be. they get a lot fewer benefits from working there. it's their paid job.
the coop is not without its flaws, and it's not for everyone, but if you're interested in a healthy lifestyle at a relatively low cost, then just give in to the experience. why waste your energy resisting change?
This was my favorite comment on the thread: "So, I don't know. Like living in New York in general, Park Slope grocery shopping is always a little off and a little too exciting and full of compromises."
I have to say that, as a co-op member on and off for ten years, I grow to appreciate it more and more. My wife and I get occasionally exasperated at the hippie-fascists who tend to come down heavy on the rules, whether they are members, coordinators or whoever. It's too crowded now on weekends. It's not always well-run (but then neither are any of our local grocery stores), but the positives far outweigh the negatives.
As the co-op grows, the variety of foods stocked grows, and more and more people are interested in good, sustainable food (from a source that uses something like 1/3 the waste of a traditional supermarket, comparably sized), at unbeatable prices. A place you can drop your kid off and shop, a place where you more often than not run into someone you know. I honestly don't get all the whining and griping. It's not perfect, but then what is?
Last, I think it's a mistake to compare the co-op to a supermarket. They are two different entities. One is driven by profit toward customer service, the other is driven by membership toward common satistfaction. For me, they're both valid, but to place one against the other is unfair and disingenuous.
(A) All membership organizations are improved by the absence of those who do not wish to follow the rules. Therefore, the PSFCo-op is improved by the absence of each and every person who violates the rules; in other words, good riddance to those who buck the system. All the better for me and the rest of the membership.
All membership organizations are improved by the absence of those who do not wish to follow the rules. Therefore, the PSFCo-op is improved by the absence of each and every person who violates the rules; in other words, good riddance to those who buck the system. All the better for me and the rest of the membership.
I have some friends that are Coop members and it works for them. My wife and I moved here from Oregon where we always used a Coop. The problem with the Park Slope Food Coop is they only use 2 vendors for most of their stuff. I'm gathering this from the post by a vendor who worked with them and (how I noticed) the absence of high quality but less expensive brands.
Coop defenders will bitterly deny this and most other criticism, but the bottom line is: they don't look out for their members wallets. The Institution is too large to be run in an orderly and organized fashion. Coops have principles (I can't list them, but they're available) and one of them is securing good prices for its members. Anyone that's "Coop"-ed anywhere else agree with me?
I got turned on to Co-ops by the Bloomingfoods in Bloomington, IN. A fantastic store with good prices and good service, wonderful selection. I never became a member, but loved shopping there. I'm now on the steering committee of a co-op looking to open in Indianapolis next spring. I'm on the membership team and thus have been researching about the various membership scenarios for co-ops. Of the literally hundreds of co-ops I've looked at only Park Slope requires membership to shop, and members to work, and a three hour orientation to become a member (no admittance after the orientation begins). A handful of other co-ops I've seen have had mandatory work but they all offer some sort of buy out option (usually around $10 a month). But most offer a voluntary working members program where those who work for a certain number of hours qualify for an extra discount. Thus the management and generally the checkers are paid staff (generally paid better than the typical supermarket) supplemented by volunteer stockers, baggers, accountants, web designers, etc... . Whether motivated by the discount or desire to be involved with their community, the member workers want to be there, and often have some competition for the positions.
As for the co-op being too large to be run in an orderly fashion I don't think so. There are other co-ops out there that are just as large that don't seem to have these problems. The problem seems to be that the co-op hasn't accounted for the change in circumstances. What worked when they were a third their current size obviously isn't going to work now. Co-ops are member owned and thus are supposed to be answerable to their membership. From reading the comments above it seems that even the defenders of this co-op aren't exactly happy with the way it's run. You should take a look at your bi-laws and figure out what the procedure is to get a topic voted on by the general membership. If the membership decides that the current workers program isn't working than the co-op has to change it. If the membership decides to implement a buyout option then even if the founders are on the board and don't like it they have to do it, that is the nature of a co-op. The members own it, not the people who started it. If you and enough of the other members don't like it than change it.
I am a member of the coop, and I'm perfectly happy with it.
If you don't want to do coop shifts, there's a simple solution: You don't have to join. It is my choice to be a member, and I'm happy with it. As long as you stick around as a member, you realize there are reasons for all the rules. It's not that complicated.
If the coop gets you angry, may I suggest you have extra time on your hand? There are many problems in the world, and worrying about some people chose to shop seems pretty low on the list.
Did any of you moaners ever stop to think that besides function there is possibly another reason for the work shifts, the punishments, the rules and the red tape at the Coop? It's to sort the lot of you lazy whiners OUT. Do the rest of us members a favor and quit, please! The Coop is a much shinier, happier place without you. Good riddance!
Signed,
VERY happy to have the privilege of membership at the PSFC
Myself, being a Coop member, a Barry Goldwater conservative, hating to do shifts, not liking to deal with one chick up in the office, disliking the make-ups with pure spite have come to four conclusions. The food there is excellent and of great quality. No one put a gun to my head for joining or is holding one to my head now. A lot of the members are pretty cool. Mistakes happen, it's a Coop where for the most part non-professionals are working on professional posts.
first of all i have been a member of the park slope coop for 5 years and have NEVER encountered the rude behavior you mention...especially compared to your typical brooklyn grocer...Next, the reason you are "forced" to work is because it is a COOPERATIVE market..... this is how the coop keeps it's prices low- by not paying employees..AND it is only 2hr 45 min a month.... I work full time and go to school full time have a toddler and still manage.... Working the shift is the price you pay to become a member. This article sounds like it is written by a typical American who wants to reap benefits without putting in the work.
first of all i have been a member of the park slope coop for 5 years and have NEVER encountered the rude behavior you mention...especially compared to your typical brooklyn grocer...Next, the reason you are "forced" to work is because it is a COOPERATIVE market..... this is how the coop keeps it's prices low- by not paying employees..AND it is only 2hr 45 min a month.... I work full time and go to school full time have a toddler and still manage.... Working the shift is the price you pay to become a member. This article sounds like it is written by a typical American who wants to reap benefits without putting in the work.
I made a T-shirt that reads,
PSFC
it's not for everybody!
I am so grateful to be a member of the PSFC. It makes me feel connected and close to the food i eat and the community i live in. What a wonderful opportunity. Every community should have one! i have become an active member and not just a passive whining and complaining consumer. At the COOP my voice is heard (especially if i use the intercom system) and i've always found people to be very helpful. I hate to sound cliche, but you get out of it what you put in.
Long Live the PSFC!!!
I've been a member of the coop for 4 years, and yeah, sometimes it's a pain in the ass, sometimes people are rude, but honestly, isn't the same true of shopping at C-town?
The coop has the best produce available anywhere in Brooklyn (honestly, better than most places in Manhattan) so wouldn't it make sense that you'd have to pay more for it? Only in this case you're paying in time (2:45 every 4 weeks) and aggravation.
I get really tired of hearing people compare it to a fascist regime, and make fun of the check out workers who won't let non-members shop there. If you can't stand it, don't shop there- but needlessly complaining about it is ridiculous. I think most people will learn everything they need to from the 2 hour orientation- they don't need your petty commentary.
Hysterical article......I pretty much agree with it for the most part....mind you I was a member back in 05 so things could have changed.....my reason for leaving was because I was returning back home....but I got to say...a lot of the people were pretty darn insane.....abrasive...on many occasions....and I am one of the most chilled people you can imagine. And yes I worked hard on my shift!
I worked as a shelf packer which was kinda fun...I got to learn the layout pretty well and also see what new produce was in. I found it hard to strike up a conversation, was spoken to appallingly by people who I can't imagine what postive energy they would bring to the co-op.....but hey...the experience proved good fodder for my mates back home....as there were certainly a few 'Seinfeld' moments at that store. I speak perfect English...and yet the amount of times some dimwit said they couldnt understand me was incredible....
Go for the produce.....just avoid the people if you can!! Lol
:)
I kind of laugh at all sides of this issue, or really non-issue.
Note to the entire City of New York: whether you eat organic, industrial, CSA, vegan, seasonal, raw, whatever, your options are pathetically limited. European food systems blow New York out of the water.
how laughable! I'm glad people like this are abandoning our coop.
I have been a member for 15 years feeding my family quality food
without breaking the bank! When was the last time you got "friendly"
serviced from Key Food or Fairway....don't you just love those
disinterested checkout kids or the uniformed..(beige of course) .whole food employees..
talk about socialist!! Good, go away. You don't get it an never will...
the coop exist because some people had a vision and made it real..
what have your accomplished recently except trying to be a witty blog
writer. You sound like every other 30 something with an ax to grind..
insufferable really! As for the "aging communist hippies"...I'll take them anyday
over the thoughtless, bottom line only, corporate idiots that
are running any other "grocery" store in Brooklyn...sorry to say also..
Whole Foods is in serious financial crisis and likely to go out of
business entirely...please don't come back when they do...no one
wants to look at your sour expression either..
This is such a great article. The coop has such an attitude problem, it's almost not worth the savings for the good food. There a certain smugness there that I am sure the original founders would be embarrassed by. Just witness the person above me with their hostile reply telling the author of the article to never come back to the coop when Whole Foods goes out of business. Sheesh.
As the piece said, there are 13,000 members. That's a lot of people! Some will have attitude. Some won't. Some are going to be grumpy when they work and "squawk." Some are going to be friendly and share valuable info and tell great jokes. If a worker does a great job, he/she won't be commended or promoted. If a worker is rude, he/she won't be fired. But, bottom line is, the food is great and it's a lot cheaper than at any other area store. The rules and the people are imperfect, but if you're a produce nut, or have special food needs or discriminating food tastes without the big budget to accompany it, the place rocks.
Hahaha...I can't help but laugh at all the negative responses! The negative, vile responses to this article from park slope food co-opites is only PROOF of how messed up and Soviet-style re-education camp its members are! YOU ARE THE PROOF OF WHAT'S STATED IN THIS ARTICLE!
Oops sorry for the mistake posts above - this is my response in it's entirety:
Hahaha...I can't help but laugh at all the negative responses to this article! The negative, vile responses from the park slope food co-opites is only PROOF of how messed up and Soviet-style re-education camp its members are! YOU ARE THE PROOF OF WHAT'S STATED IN THIS ARTICLE!
I was also a member of the infamous park slope food co-op for about 8 months. I initially hated it for the same reasons as the author of this article (you are treated like dirt and it's totally inefficient), but then grew tolerant of it to get the cheap prices. Then I realized that I was tolerating b.s. and abuse just to get organic (or supposedly organic) food at cheap prices, and it just wasn't worth that kind of misery anymore. The place is full of crazy, a**hole type organic folks, who give a bad name to the movement. You'll see that anyone who remains there is crazy.
On top of this, they carry the following items:
rat poison, colgate toothpaste, non-recycled plastic bags, tons of items in packaging that cannot be recycled, hardly any organic produce, tropicana orange juice, items with white flour, high fructose corn syrup, refined grains, bottled seltzer water (but not bottled regular water because it's so "bad" - they have the bottled seltzer so that people can get the deposit back), tons of sugary gross candy and cookies, name brand cereals, name brand meats, yogurt shipped from washington state (even though they carry other more local brands), tons and tons of non-organic food, etc...all of which are totally contrary to what they say they do. (Example: Tropicana organge juice was used as an example of what they would not carry during my orientation - but they carry it!) And why? So they can make a profit. Their regulations state that they'll keep a non-environmentally conscious item on their shelves if it shows "saleability". Seriously, I'm not making that up. Oh, and their employees' starting salaries (to do nothing in an inefficient manner) start at $79k. What an investment in member's money!! How about expanding (because they are so freaking small and packed) like other, normal co-ops do, when the time is nigh? Nope, they pocket the profits.
The members who work there are total jerks. It's RARE to find a nice person, who will actually show you how to do your job and train you well. Members will push you out of their way to get something. If you work as a cashier, you have to do the whole count-out thing (that normal places have other personnel do) AND drop the money bag at the bank at the end of your shift - it's NYC, hello!!??
There are other co-ops out there people, that are run normally, with friendliness, with efficiency, and where you can see your investment being put to work (such as the Flatbush food co-op - a GREAT place! - and you don't have to work there to be a member! Check out flatbushfoodcoop.com).
It's like a yoga class I was in last night...taught by someone who's most likely a member at the park slope food co-op...it was crazy in a bad way! So I decided to stop going there, to stop putting myself in the company of crazies who know absolutely nothing about treating people well, nor anything about accountability.
If you're in something/somewhere that you do not feel good about - LEAVE! It's the best type of "service" that you can give. Don't hurt yourself, just because these all-natural-organic-yoga-spiritual types say that's what you're supposed to do (example: the teacher in the previously mentioned yoga class said to "call your guides to you and pray to them to surround you with irritating people and irritating situations, so that you can continue to challenge yourself and grow, because the problem lies in how you perceive it. It's not them, it's you.") AS IF!! This is why the hippie movement failed people: there is a balance to strike, a yin and a yang. It's not about 'anything goes". That just doesn't work. And the park slope food co-op will continue to kick itself in the a** that way, and then they'll all sit around and wonder why it collapsed.