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.
i heard that the green grape was opening a food store. any truth to that?
would still like to a real gourmet market in fort greene. but no co-op! everyone i know who’s tried it had gotten fed up.
Oragnic Tomatoes = Socialist Tomatoes
To the extent a suit from Garden of Eden, Union Market, or any other high end grocer is listening:
THERE IS MONEY IN CLINTON HILL AND WE WILL SPEND IT ON GOOD TOMATOES, BUTTERMILK, FAGE, MORBIER AND CILANTRO
Thanks for your time.
PS to 10:17,
You idiot…
Look, a member shift slot is a whole big 2.5 hours every four weeks (basically once a month), NOT 4hrs/wk. The shift works out to about 35 minutes of work per week and is lumped into a once a month work slot.
PLEASE don’t give out incorrect info.
Also, stocking shelves or just sitting at the door while members enter scanning their IDs is not the end of the world. Basically, many of the tasks at the coop could not be considered hard work in the least (ex. of things that count as a work slot:
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.
The coop has liberal parameters for members to avoid work: pregnancy and early infant care (for both partners/parents), sick leave and post-surgery, disability, etc., etc. In fact, we have a member who is very much disabled but who WANTS to come in and work his shift.
The coop is a great place to meet all kinds of people. It has an amazingly diverse cross section of Brooklyn (as well as other boros…in fact, some members hail from upstate, others from Nassau and Suffolk).
AND BY THE WAY, ORGANIC TOMATOES WERE 59-CENTS OR 79-CENTS PER POUND THE LAST TWO SUMMERS. TRY FINDING THAT AT (F)AMISH MARKET, WHOLE FOOLS OR ANY OTHER MARKET INCLUDING “THE” MET, PATHMARK AND CO.
park slope co-op = love the prices, hate the culture. love the good food, hate the long walk from ft. greene.
please, please, please open a co-op in ft. greene.
I dont necessarily need a food co op but i would really appreciate a good health food store….something like BACK TO THE LAND or Garden of Eden in the CLinton Hill/ Fort Greene Neighborhood. That would really make the neighborhood!
A Union Market is opening in Ft. Greene.
That should help.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW:
YEARS ago, the general membership of the Park Slope Food Coop (PSFC) had a democratic vote in favor of funding and opening another store under the same coop in FORT GREENE before the neighborhood would have been considered so upscale. The general membership did NOT want to use funds/loans to expand the existing coop location on Union at that time.
THE INCUMBANTS (read: “sinecure” holders) WHO HAVE BEEN MANAGING THE COOP FOR Y-E-A-R-S, and didn’t apparently like the idea of opening a store in a non “upscale†nabe (read between the lines) AFTER the legal vote actually went behind the membership’s back, pulled a fast one and pushed through their originally desired plan to expand the existing coop’s footprint on Union (with a substantial mortgage) instead of opening a secondary location in Fort Greene. The idea of another location opening evaporated even though the membership had voted. Some “cooperativeâ€â€¦more like a small collective of managers running a grocery store for its own benefit despite the membership’s expressed desires.
It can be a long walk from Union to Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, esp. in bad weather
The above example is just one example of those who are permanently ensconced in the coop’s management going against the general membership’s expressed wishes and doing what it “damned†pleases.
Lets keep the fascists in Park Slope, shall we.