Food Co-op Planned for Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill?
According to The Brooklyn Paper today, a couple of Park Slope Food Co-op devotees are looking to open their own food co-op in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill. Kathryn Zarczynski, the Clinton Hill-based operator of the website guiltfreeshopping.com, and DK Holland, a Slope Co-op member who lives in Fort Greene, are frustrated with the lack…
According to The Brooklyn Paper today, a couple of Park Slope Food Co-op devotees are looking to open their own food co-op in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill. Kathryn Zarczynski, the Clinton Hill-based operator of the website guiltfreeshopping.com, and DK Holland, a Slope Co-op member who lives in Fort Greene, are frustrated with the lack of affordable or high-quality grocery stores in the area (Holland calls the Atlantic Center Pathmark a pit). The general manager of Park Slope’s Co-op, meanwhile, says there are hundreds of Clinton Hill/Fort Greene residents who use the Slope Co-op. Seems to us like Zarczynski and Holland’s idea would probably be a big success—does anyone know if it’s more than just talk and whether the duo has been scouting locations? Also, what would the impact on the Park Slope co-op be if a chunk of its members had an alternative on the other side of Flatbush?
A Food Co-op of Their Own? [Brooklyn Paper]
Photo by arimoore.
A co-op would be great in Ft. Greene. I am hoping that a supermarket opens in the ground floor of the Forte. All of the delis around here are really overpriced, it would be nice if they had some competition. Also a good Chinese restaurant. That would be really nice.
Food Coop = Brainwashing, Hippie, Hairy armpit,tree-hugging, pot smoking, self-righteous, communist cult.
Everyone I know has ever joined has quit the co-op.
Note to 10:56 –
1) attending a general meeting
2) working a particular committee (i.e. pushing paper…maybe not even…just running your mouth for an hour or two a month
3) child care (yes, some people are way into it)…and think, wouldn’t YOU like to be able to drop your 3 year old for two hours while you shop every time??? Hello!
4) food prep which means putting bulk foods in little bags and weighing them. Can be fun and there is a rockin’ CD library in that area with 100s of CDs.
5) cashiering…not hard at all…I sit next to a JUDGE on my shift when I cashier.
All things most people would rather not do even if it is for $.79 tomatoes
If the co-op is so environmentally friendly, why do they leave their neon sign on all the time?
The work schedule at the co-op would be manageable IF there were open slots. Their policies are rooted in a time when the co-op had far fewer members, yet nothing has changed.
There are thousands of members but only so many hours in the day, yet the co-op has held onto its policy of making its members work 2.75 hours every four weeks. It would make sense to have a policy that changed as the membership levels rose above certain threshholds. (They could change it to one work shift every five weeks, or have people work for only two hours every four weeks, for example.)
I often wind up sitting around doing nothing even when I explicitly ask for something to do, simply because there are too many people and not enough work slots. (New members, good luck getting a work slot that doesn’t start at 6:00 AM.) I don’t mind doing work, but having to show my face at the co-op simply because the powers that be can’t update their scheduling system or revisit old policies is building resentment in this co-op member.
A food co-op in FG/CH would be great.
“but no co-op! everyone i know who’s tried it had gotten fed up.”
there are 18,000 members of the park slope food co-op who have tried it and not gotten fed up.
santa doesn’t like quitters.
as one of those ch’ers that treks over to the coop, i would welcome one opening closer. for me, the choice to go to ps for produce is a no brainer, and working 2.5 hrs once a month is really not a big deal. and the fact that its half the cost of the crappy produce at the met makes it even better. bring it on!