Fort Greene Co-Op Chooses Toiling
Despite the low-pitched groan that emanates from the Park Slope Food Co-op due to compulsory work slots, the impending Fort Greene co-op has chosen to follow Park Slope’s model. The Brooklyn Paper reports that every member of the Greene Hill Co-op will work a shift in exchange for discounted organic groceries, though they’re in favor…
Despite the low-pitched groan that emanates from the Park Slope Food Co-op due to compulsory work slots, the impending Fort Greene co-op has chosen to follow Park Slope’s model. The Brooklyn Paper reports that every member of the Greene Hill Co-op will work a shift in exchange for discounted organic groceries, though they’re in favor of a less strict policy than Park Slope’s, which has members work two shifts if they miss one. Can’t have community unless all folks participate, they decided. Now they just need to find a space.
Workers of the Co-op Unite [Brooklyn Paper]
PSFC Produce. Photo by bluesage.
Fairway isn’t all that convenient for a lot of us to get to without cars. Spending 30$ for cabs isn’t a plus. And how much can you carry on the bus or train? So Fairway isn’t an option for many.
15,000 members isn’t a measure of popularity, it’s a measure of economic success and business smarts.
Yes, I went to the Park Slope Co-op site and saw that they only sell to members. Ridiculous!!! Only “co-op mentality” would miss the huge opportunity to sell to non-memebrs at higher prices. I bet in Vermont the prices weren’t higher for non-members.
If you have a product that is higher quality than your supermarket competition then you should be able to charge for it.
I definitely think that there are things to criticize about the Park Slope Food Co-op. It’s the reason I have not joined as of yet. But I still think it’s a successful endeavor from most people I hear from.
I’d also argue that while Park Slope might be affluent as a whole, there are a lot of old timers who work at the Co-op who make nothing like 350 an hour. I think that the person you describe is the exception and not the norm.
A more realistic number is probably 200 or 300 bucks in labor costs for those hours and I’d argue that most people shopping there probably do save that in a months worth of groceries.
We are also talking much higher quality groceries, so it would be difficult to quantify.
Either way, I’m glad it’s there. I’ve been leaning towards joining lately.
Now that Fairway is open where you can get decent fruits and vegetables, including organic, at a decent price, I wouldn’t consider joining a co-op. When grocery stores carried nothing but crap, the co-op was tempting.
We were in Vermont a few years ago and went into a food co-op and asked if we could buy anything if we weren’t members. The person behind the counter laughed, said that of course we could buy without being members, adding that we must be from Park Slope to even ask.
11217;
The answer depends upon a person’s income. Let’s take the case of a lawyer for example, plenty of whom can bill at $350/hour or more. Their COOP effort, at 2 hours and 45 minutes per month, is equivalent to almost $1000 of their labor (and I’m not including possible “opportunity costs”). If they believe that they are saving $1000 off the price of their food each month, it is worth their time. Somehow, I doubt that they are saving this much money on their food bill.
I wonder about your last statement. Is it your philosophy that a concept’s popularity makes it beyond the reach of critical analysis? I would caution against such thinking, for it is precisely this philosphy that leads to bubble mentalities.
Benson,
It is my understanding that people choose their shift at the Park Slope Food Co-op, so does it still stand to reason that it makes no sense if people have chosen to be an “escort” and chosen to work there in their free time for 2 hours and 45 minutes each month in exchange for food which is 40% of what the grocery stores offer?
I’m curious.
Given that the Co-op has been around since 1973 and has something like 15,000 members, I’d say they are pretty successful.
I haven’t been to the PS Co-op. Is there a two-tier pricing system that allows non-members to buy at a higher price?
Goldie;
Rather than throwing insults at Polemecist, let’s try to debate this on an economic level.
You state that you are satisfied with working for the COOP in that it eliminates some of the labor overhead, thereby reducing the mark-up in your food costs. In making this statement, have you considered the value of your time? I cannot see how you have done so, and still reach this conclusion.
Given that Park Slope is generally an affluent area, I cannot see how the Food Coop makes sense. What you are advocating is that the cost of lower-paid workers be eliminated, and instead, you are making use of folks whose time is worth more. Moreover, given that the COOP mandates this high-cost labor, it is not used wisely. I cringe every time I see a COOP “escort” wheeling groceries with a shopper through the streets of Park Slope. It is a waste of human capital, all for the sake of some romantic notion of a non-profit Coop.
There are instances where a Food Coop makes sense. If it is done on a small scale,it can result in real savings. In a low-income area where labor is more plentiful and low cost, it also makes sense. In an area like Park Slope, it makes no economic sense. If folks want to join for other reasons, well, live and let live.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_trap:
“Social trap is a term used by psychologists to describe a situation in which a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains, which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole. Examples of social traps include the overharvesting of fish species by commercial and sport fishers, the near-extinction of the American bison, energy “brownout” and “blackout” power outages during periods of extreme temperatures, the overgrazing of cattle on the Sahelian Desert, and the destruction of the rainforest by logging interests and agriculture.”
Either Wikipedia is talking crap or Polemicist is and, given the latter’s commenting history, I’m pretty sure I know which.