Park Slope Food Co-Op Kicking Ass
Fresh off the news that the Greene Hill Food Co-Op signed its lease at 18-24 Putnam Avenue, Fortune takes a look at “the rise of the grocery co-op,” focusing specifically on the Park Slope location. The PSFC is the largest consumer-owned co-op by sales in the United States, raking in $39.4 million dollars (or $6,500…
Fresh off the news that the Greene Hill Food Co-Op signed its lease at 18-24 Putnam Avenue, Fortune takes a look at “the rise of the grocery co-op,” focusing specifically on the Park Slope location. The PSFC is the largest consumer-owned co-op by sales in the United States, raking in $39.4 million dollars (or $6,500 per square foot) last year. The reason for success and the big savings? Inventory based on customer demand, requiring all members to work at the store and only allowing members to shop, and a limited selection of items within a small store footprint. And while the article says competing grocery stores have brushed off the PSFC as a one-time success story, it also notes that 200 co-ops are currently in start-up mode. That’s the largest number since the 70s!
The Rise of the Grocery Store Co-Op [Fortune]
Photo by nancyscola
DH, we DO shop at our local CSA & get our meat at Marlowe.
It’s all in South Williamsburg and we’re practically in Brownsville.
We spend about $120 a week for two people.
Like I said it’s REALLY FAR AWAY and REALLY EXPENSIVE.
Park Slope Food Coop would be at least 30 percent less if not more — but PSFC may as well be the North Pole Food Coop as far as we’re concerned.
also if he’s living in brooklyn, he probably turned to manorexia like everyone else seems to have
*rob*
“There’s nothing wrong with being a responsible consumer, I’m just tired of hearing about it. Am I the only one?”
I have many complaints about the PSFC, of which I am no longer a member, but this is not one of them. In fact, I liked that when shopping there, I didn’t have to hear about, or worry about, the provenance of the products I was buying. Instead, I could trust that they buyers had already taken care of that for me, so that I could buy something and know that it was organic, or free trade, or whatever.
What I couldn’t take were the crowds, hour-long check-out lines, ridiculous triple check-out system, regular work shifts with stiff penalties for missing or changing them, and generally self-righteous attitudes that prevented me from, say, letting my toddler nibble on a bagel while waiting with me in the hour-long checkout line without some crazed old hippie berating me for “stealing from the Co-op!” (even though I would, of course, pay for whatever she ate).
I’ve been a member of the PSFC since 1992. Like some of the haters above, I get gypped — I belong to a household of two adults, we travel a lot, we eat out a lot, and so we probably work more hours per dollar spent shopping than most of the other members. But that doesn’t bother me. I like working there, I benefit from the healthy, low-cost food and most of all I value the community the coop creates and supports. All those complainers? If that’s the way you feel, you should definitely not join. But I think you’re missing something special.
The camera is said to add 20 lbs., so I’m not surprised, tiptoe.
hahahaha, totally, i should have! and youre probably right about the car haha
*rob*
I once worked the same shift as Adrian Grenier… much, much thinner in person.
Did you ask her if she needed help loading her hemp bags into her CAR?
LOL heather. i got sneered at and a mini lecture once some some dopey chick behind me at ASSOCIATED SUPERMARKET of all places for using plastic bags.
*rob*