Streetlevel: Organic Boom on Cortelyou
The changing demographics in Victorian Flatbush are having a big impact on the neighborhood’s food market scene. On the heels of a new organic market opening on the cornering Cortelyou and Stratford a couple of weeks ago (and the Green Market opening this past weekend) comes the news, via a neighborhood tipster, that the Food…
The changing demographics in Victorian Flatbush are having a big impact on the neighborhood’s food market scene. On the heels of a new organic market opening on the cornering Cortelyou and Stratford a couple of weeks ago (and the Green Market opening this past weekend) comes the news, via a neighborhood tipster, that the Food Co-op will be buying out the Associated on Cortelyou and Marlborough. According to our source, Associated owner Leon Boyer is selling because of all the “damned yuppies.” What’s the impact of this on the folks in the area who can’t afford organic fare? Do they still have other options?
Photo by Kate Leonova for Property Shark
Here’s my problem with both the Flatbush Coop and the new place: neither sell locally grown produce during market season. It’s not just big places like Whole Foods who can make deals with local farmers – when I lived in Greenpoint, the Garden, run by a local Polish family, sold Red Jacket Orchard’s fruit and ciders every summer. What gives with only selling food flown in from New Zealand and California, when we live in a great farm state?
I love that they’re both here, though. They have pros and cons. The Coop is really frustrating to shop in sometimes, and sometimes very overpriced, but they have great, cheap organic coffee. The new place has horrible, stale coffee, but better prices for some of the same stuff, and I don’t feel like I’m in a macrobiotic throwback of humming flourescent lights and carob treats.
That Met Food is disgusting. And the Associated…well, that place wasn’t so bad. But they charged $9 for a jar of gefilte fish…is that “supporting the diversity of the neighborhood”? For those who want gourmet food, I say just walk over to Golden Farm on e. 4th, or any of the other Russian markets. Those places are terrific. I’d still rather support local businesses than trek to another neighborhood to shop, and no way do I want to see the Flatbush Coop turn into the Park Slope coop. I already lived in Cambridge, thank you.
I meant… NON-pricey staples…
I was shocked to see the Associated packing up. Where am I going to get regular non-organic, pricey staples, much less Breyers with 2 organic stores in the area?? Yes, I guess there is Met, but they need to clean up. And same with C-Town.
The Flatbush Food Co-Op is never fun to go into. I avoid it at all costs. It’s narrow, small, crowded, and you’re forever getting out of the way of the employees. I’ve gone in there to just pick up 1 or 2 things and the line for the cashier just makes me put it back and leave. If they are smart, they will increase the fruit/veggie selection, clean it up (nothing ever looked fresh sitting in those age-old barrels), and decrease their prices.
The new Frontier Market is great.. but I was sorely disaapointed with the lack of abundant fresh fruit/veggies that didn’t cost $5/lb.
Something I loved about Park Slope was that there were a ton of green grocers with super fresh produce at competitive prices. AND they were clean and neat. Also, even tho the lines were long, those guys behind the counter knew how to MOVE and get people rung up without a long wait.
WE NEED MORE GREEN GROCERS IN FLATBUSH! Competing organic markets are fine for that granola and speciality stuff, but I really just want decent, competitively priced food!!
I have long called the Flatbush Food Co-op the “very expensive compost store.” A real flashback to the old days when “organic” produce meant “tiny rotting brown apples” and such. As for Associated, the management did make various efforts over the years to attract their “evolving demographic,” but the demographic along Cortelyou has “evolved” so oddly and fitfully that “I pity the fool.” What’ll it be–Mexican folks, moms in hijabs, WIC, and 99-cent stores, or yuppies and sun-dried tomatoes? Really, both, and that’s a hard bifurcation to straddle. Add that to the store’s small size and bizarre layout, and it’s highly problematic that the Compost Co-op will do any better. (I keep reading how the supermarket biz has a razor-thin profit margin.) Agree totally that what the area needs is a good greenmarket (aside from the seasonal farmer’s market)–maybe combined with something like the Ace in Park Slope at 7th Ave. and Berkeley. The Ace is akin to a (pricey) old-fashioned corner grocery; the place is like a Tardis, bigger inside than outside, and mysteriously seems to always have Exactly What I Want.
Or…we could just start a Flatbush shuttle-bus service to Fairway.
I agree on the bank, but please, please, let a new pub go in the cornerstone space. It is a great old school pub site and the neighborhood needs one bar!
It is a fact of life in the supermarket business that stores need remodelling every five years or so. The fast pace of change in the Cortelyou area has brought Associated to that point now.
But without updates and remodelling, shoppers drift off to the competition, which is suddenly abundant on Cortelyou.
Meanwhile, the Associated always struck me in a funny way. When I began shopping there I felt as though I had drifted into the only store in a small sleepy town. The place gave me a feeling of dullness. And tiredness. And the fruit selection inside the front door always seemed meager.
It did seem as though the store couldn’t pinpoint its own identity. As much as the owner may have wanted to please the changing base of shoppers, I got the feeling something was holding him back. Perhaps he felt that catering to the “yuppies” was some act of treason to the shoppers he’d served for a lot of years.
Meanwhile, the Flatbush Food Coop is the last organization I’d want running the Associated site.
By the way, the Coop has narrow aisles. Yet the store, with its “health food” sensibility seems to attract a lot of people who can barely slip through those close passages. What gives?
Anyway, the Coop prices encourage many shoppers to look elsewhere for food. Unless you want to pay about $5 a pound for “organic bananas” it pays to shop at other venues.
The neighborhood would fare far better if the Park Slope Food Coop acquired the Flatbush phony coop. However, that would lead to yet another twist in the social fabric. Not negative, just one that’s good for a little mirth.
Meanwhile, Cortelyou needs a bank. I heard that a bank may occupy the site catty-corner from Vox Pop. But a better site is the corner of Marlborough and Cortelyou. The site of the Cornerstone Pub, I guess it was.
This is a great opportunity for the Flatbush Food Coop to expand its membership by offering a more enticing discount for working members – something on par with the Park Slope Food Coop. There are a lot of people living out here putting great time and effort into the Park Slope Food Coop. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this, but wouldn’t it be great for the neighborhood if people spent their money and directed their efforts locally? Although the FFC can’t afford to lose it’s non member customer base just yet, it would pay for them to start imitating the PSFC model as best they can. A move like this would also help them to stay afloat – the new organic market down the street poses serious competition.
A neighbor on the neighborhood listserv described a conversation with the owner. Her reporting was much more accurate and in tune than Mr. Brownstoner’s “damn yuppies” comment which is so old and a cop out. Shame on you. Situations are usually more complicated than name calling and broad generalizations.
“One of the reasons that they sold was because they were hurting over the last couple of years. They didn’t quite figure out the magic formula to fully serve the diversity of the neighborhood, and while they tried a lot of innovative things, he felt as if he either offended or aliented different groups when trying to please everyone. I am witness to their efforts as I saw them try more upscale and organic produce, meat, deli and bakery items as well as host neighborhood cooking demonstrations, and I also started to see a wider variety of ethnic products like indian mango pickle, mexican foods, etc.”
No 9:52, the park slope coop is excellent. Courtelyou has a different “coop”, which isn’t really a coop and is very overpriced and understocked and not so fresh.