Park Slope Co-op Brings Home the Bacon
“Founded in 1973, the Park Slope co-op has grown so dramatically in recent years that it has been forced to limit the number of new members. Its balance sheet is so strong—the co-op paid off its mortgage in January—that general manager and founding member Joe Holtz wonders what to do with more than $500,000 in…
“Founded in 1973, the Park Slope co-op has grown so dramatically in recent years that it has been forced to limit the number of new members. Its balance sheet is so strong—the co-op paid off its mortgage in January—that general manager and founding member Joe Holtz wonders what to do with more than $500,000 in profits. Last year’s revenues were $39 million. If we continue to accumulate cash like this, he says, we’ll have to have a meeting and maybe lower our prices again. — Crain’s
Photo by Peffs
Slopegirl, there is every reason to expand the coop to other branches, since the members of its community live in other communities, and using an existing network for procurement and distribution has GOT to be cheaper (and greener) than each neighboring coop getting their own.
But I suppose that is one crux of the argument, isn’t it? Does the PSFC serve Park Slope, or the entire borough? I can’t really blame its members for wanting to look after their own, but at the moment, (and just from what I saw the one time I was there… look, I am no expert), the whole thing is sort of a victim of its own success. Would having a branch in the south slope or windsor terrace be a “betrayal” of the cause? PLG?
And, no, I wasn’t mocking the plastic bag usage, I was mocking the debate that surely must have ensued regarding plastic bag usage. Decisions by consensus, right?
I don’t know if we;d join one in Fort Greene or not. The food options here are pretty great, and when they’re not, I like Fresh Direct. (Aka, satan, to many of you.)
Really, I wish they were more like this:
http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/
Maybe they can stop being such Nazis now.
With all the bankers and lawyers (like me!) moving to PS in the past few years, I think they should launch a hostile takeover of C-Town. Could I satisfy the hours requirement by marking up tender offer documents?
Park Loper said it was a myth there were entrenched board members against expansion: I only passed that along because I heard Joe himself tell an entire room full of people that about a year ago and he said it like it’s common knowledge.
The co-op is good and bad. Good for food, bad for the crazy people that take it way too seriously. The “crazy” members that would rather recycle boxes and have them be picked up by Sanitation than let the “sane” members that are moving use them…crazy. Recycling is recycling right?
The “crazy” management that is threating to sue Barney’s co-op because they are not a “real” co-op. Stick to organic food…not fashion and recycling issues.
The coop is not a business, the stated goal is to break even. The PSFC was not created to profit or expand, it is created as a place to come together and shop in cooperation.
The idea of expanding is a good one, and indeed the PSFC does support coops in other neighborhoods. There’s no reason to “expand” the PSFC itself into “another branch” since its goal is to be a part of its own community, which it is. If the PSFC “expanded” to run coops in neighborhoods throughout the city, that would take away the ownership from the members of those communities. I think the goal of supporting other up and coming coops makes a lot more sense than “expansion” if you remember the PSFC’s mission and goals.
Of course the PSFC system doesn’t work for everyone. If you want in, you’re in. If not, there are plenty of other options. Does it improve the community, borough and city? I think absolutely.
Yes, there are a lot of coop wackos. Probably only slightly higher than in the average population. Yes, the rules are sometimes byzantine, because it’s a self-managed group of 15,000 new yorkers and it’s a democracy. What’s the Churchill quote? “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
The fact of its own success might answer the Q of whether the system works or not.
Since we are at capacity, maybe the more people who think PSFC sucks, the better. But I can tell you, on the inside, it’s quite nice. I urge you to come to a meeting. The orientation is really the hardest part.
rob — you’re confusing a utilitarian style with lack of cleanliness. psfc is the cleanest food retailer you will ever see. there are a million worker bees cleaning it all the time. really — ask for a tour and check out the alley behind the store where compost buckets etc are stored. everything gets cleaned out so well and so often there’s not a whiff of garbage.
Sometimes I think PSFC nonmembers obsess about it more than members do.
For me, and most people I know who belong, membership is not a passionate cause. It’s a grocery store with better stuff cheaper than anywhere else in the neighborhood. If it’s worth working there, great, if not, great.
But I don’t get Heather’s argument. I don’t like it because it’s P.C. and inconvenient and the lines are too long and there are too many rules, and they obsess about plastic bags. Also, why won’t they open one near me!
It’s like the Woody Allen joke: the food at this place is TERRIBLE — and such small portions!