ambivalent? good things about the Park Slope Coop!
i just joined the infamous park slope food coop, a bit reluctantly i must say...
while not a right winger by any means, i don't have the stereotypic "p.s. coop" mindset that everyone seems to hate and love and fear so much.
...and i've always hated teams.
...and i think, furthermore, that one of america's biggest problems is that people DON'T eat vegetables period, whether sprayed or not...i'm also tired of the organic militia in america - too many gluten-free cranberry muffins will make you as fat as dunkin donuts... americans are unhealthy because they are too fat because they eat too much - not because of non-organic food
DON'T LET THE ORIENTATION FREAK YOU OUT. the quality of the produce will blow your mind. (if we've made it this far, to brooklyn, we are all new yorkers at heart and really couldn't give a shit what anyone thinks, in a good way... food coop is no different. do what you want.)
(the work hours - namely 2.45? per MONTH? pshaw. most people spend that time each DAY staring at the wall or surfing the net or watching tv or being depressed.)
SO ANYWAY i've now shopped there 2x and my food is AMAZING!!!!!
THINGS I'VE DISCOVERED after 2 shopping trips:
* the quality of the produce alone is reason to go there.
* when you boil the brocoli, it comes out SPRING GREEN, not dirty, army green. same with the green beans.
* it IS cheaper.
* you don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to. obviously. no one will bother you. there aren't people passing out tracts or something. if you want to treat it as your usual anonymous grocery store, go for it.
* on the other hand, if you need help or have something stupid to ask - like "excuse me do you have - ahem - REAL mayo? not like... vegan mayo?" - someone is certain to be very friendly and helpful.
* i think it, like everything else, is about as ideological as you want to make it.
* if you're a new park sloper like me, it seems kind of social, like an event, to go there.
* i find it nice to be organized about my eating... because it's a tiny bit of a trek for me - 20 min on foot - i decide carefully about my food, what i need, i make a list very deliberately.
and i've read and observed in myself, that people are healthier (and thinner) when they eat very deliberately and enjoy their food.
while not a right winger by any means, i don't have the stereotypic "p.s. coop" mindset that everyone seems to hate and love and fear so much.
...and i've always hated teams.
...and i think, furthermore, that one of america's biggest problems is that people DON'T eat vegetables period, whether sprayed or not...i'm also tired of the organic militia in america - too many gluten-free cranberry muffins will make you as fat as dunkin donuts... americans are unhealthy because they are too fat because they eat too much - not because of non-organic food
DON'T LET THE ORIENTATION FREAK YOU OUT. the quality of the produce will blow your mind. (if we've made it this far, to brooklyn, we are all new yorkers at heart and really couldn't give a shit what anyone thinks, in a good way... food coop is no different. do what you want.)
(the work hours - namely 2.45? per MONTH? pshaw. most people spend that time each DAY staring at the wall or surfing the net or watching tv or being depressed.)
SO ANYWAY i've now shopped there 2x and my food is AMAZING!!!!!
THINGS I'VE DISCOVERED after 2 shopping trips:
* the quality of the produce alone is reason to go there.
* when you boil the brocoli, it comes out SPRING GREEN, not dirty, army green. same with the green beans.
* it IS cheaper.
* you don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to. obviously. no one will bother you. there aren't people passing out tracts or something. if you want to treat it as your usual anonymous grocery store, go for it.
* on the other hand, if you need help or have something stupid to ask - like "excuse me do you have - ahem - REAL mayo? not like... vegan mayo?" - someone is certain to be very friendly and helpful.
* i think it, like everything else, is about as ideological as you want to make it.
* if you're a new park sloper like me, it seems kind of social, like an event, to go there.
* i find it nice to be organized about my eating... because it's a tiny bit of a trek for me - 20 min on foot - i decide carefully about my food, what i need, i make a list very deliberately.
and i've read and observed in myself, that people are healthier (and thinner) when they eat very deliberately and enjoy their food.
Comments
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I love the Co-op. I am amused by the old-timers, the hard-liners, the folks who try to "test" me at the checkout by telling me their number and then telling me I'm not supposed to accept anything but a card; I am REALLY amused by all the officious signs and the attitude. But that's just my sense of humor.
Truth is, I love the produce and the bulk items and the beers and breads, and the San Marzano tomatoes, and the snacks. I'm addicted to those chocolate-and-coconut bars. And I'm really addicted to the prices.
I love getting things local and in season - that's the best reason to go there. -
Haven't there been enough threads about the Coop? Can't this be merged with the other thread(s)?
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flexichick, i didn't WANT to merge with other threads because i read them and didn't find them useful when i was thinking of joining. they seemed to be split between people who don't like the coop who were saying things i was worried about which almost deterred me from joining.
i wanted to give some ambivalent people a point of view to show the coop is not some ideological, goody-two-shoes thing ---
it has GOOD VEGETABLES!!!!! nuff said, really.
and it's restored some of the pleasure which i found in food-buying in france (where you will NOT be sold moldy eggs, as i was here, or vegetables which turn army green when you boil them)...
it's also really nice to be in an atmosphere where food is important - not at all what you find in a normal, american supermarket.
also the coop has beer and very, very good meat. confidence-inspiring meat... and meat, if you eat it, can be the big pitfall of a normal supermarket. -
Another reason to join: as of October 1, they will start taking debit cards! No more running to the ATM because you didn't bring enough cash.
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Gee, I've been eating "supermarket meat" for over 30 years and I'm still here posting. I've never bought moldy eggs, I only buy good vegetables and by the way vegetables should be steamed, better yet roasted, not boiled.
I agree, merge the coop posts. -
eggcream, sorry i meant STEAMED. it was a typo. i just wanted to express my enthusiasm separately because no one reads the long posts and people should know the coop's not just for ideologues.
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It does sound good - I've heard tell of the quality of the produce many times.
I'll shop there when someone can explain to me why the hell I should be expected to jockey a till for no pay 2 hrs a month. I've never understood why members place so much value on it. -
Oh, I looooove jockeying the till! Well, doing checkout, anyway - you get to see what everyone else is buying, ask questions (what's burdock for, anyhow?), and learn things.
The recompense comes with the discounts on the food. I save 30% easy, over what I was paying at C-Town for not as good stuff. Better quality, lower prices, recipes, and just that weird serendipity of fun finds - if you're a foodie, it works. -
ljnd wrote: The recompense comes with the discounts on the food. I save 30% easy, over what I was paying at C-Town for not as good stuff. Better quality, lower prices, recipes, and just that weird serendipity of fun finds - if you're a foodie, it works.
Well the thing is, I can't understand why they're not paying someone $10/hr to jockey the till full-time. That's $25/month to cover a member's share of the work (at 2.5 hrs/month). If I did all my grocery shopping there and saved 30% over my usual purchases then I'd save many times the $25 it'd cost to pay someone to do the work I'd be asked to do for free!
I just don't get it. It makes absolutely no financial sense! -
Flexichick wrote: Haven't there been enough threads about the Coop? Can't this be merged with the other thread(s)?
I don't think there's a need to merge it. This is definitely a different discussion than has occurred in those other threads. -
To me it seems that "the othe thread is too long to read, so I'm just going to start my own thread"....which means that anytime you want to make sure that you get heard, you should do this.
To me, this thread IS more of the same.
I'll just stop reading it now :-) -
I won't weigh in about the co-op -- not here, anyway -- but I just have to say it:
I've been buying C-town broccoli for years, and I've found it fresh and delicious and usually $.99/bunch. And I always steam it, and it never turns "army green." It's always bright spring green, and grassy-tasting and delicious.
Broccoli turning army green is not a sign of impurity or non-organicness or warmongering wickedness or some other political flaw in your vegetable sourcing. It's a sign that you've overcooked it.
Al dente, dude. Al dente. :chef: -
Evilbert wrote: Well the thing is, I can't understand why they're not paying someone $10/hr to jockey the till full-time.
Uh...it's a cooperative. So that means that "they" = us (the members). That $10/hr has to come out of what you would otherwise save. -
Brooke Lynn Knight wrote:
So true! So true!
Broccoli turning army green is not a sign of impurity or non-organicness or warmongering wickedness or some other political flaw in your vegetable sourcing. It's a sign that you've overcooked it.
Al dente, dude. Al dente. :chef: -
magic1 wrote: [quote=Evilbert]Well the thing is, I can't understand why they're not paying someone $10/hr to jockey the till full-time.
Uh...it's a cooperative. So that means that "they" = us (the members). That $10/hr has to come out of what you would otherwise save.
re-read my post. 2.5 hrs/week x $10/hr = $25/month in staff wages to cover my labor. That doesn't even come close to the claimed 30% savings I'd have on my monthly grocery bill, so why even bother with the enforced labor?
And while we're on the subject, if the CoOp produce is supposedly so fresh and cheap, then why arn't other supermarkets stocking from the same source? Seriously, the more I look into it, the more it just seems fishy. -
Evilbert wrote: [quote=magic1][quote=Evilbert]Well the thing is, I can't understand why they're not paying someone $10/hr to jockey the till full-time.
Uh...it's a cooperative. So that means that "they" = us (the members). That $10/hr has to come out of what you would otherwise save.
re-read my post. 2.5 hrs/week x $10/hr = $25/month in staff wages to cover my labor. That doesn't even come close to the claimed 30% savings I'd have on my monthly grocery bill, so why even bother with the enforced labor?
And while we're on the subject, if the CoOp produce is supposedly so fresh and cheap, then why arn't other supermarkets stocking from the same source? Seriously, the more I look into it, the more it just seems fishy.
evilbert, maybe it's just not your thing?
Part of the pleasure, and the reason the place is clean and nice and stocked with really cool stuff, is that minimum wage slaves are not running it.
Some cooperatives let people buy in -- that extra $25/month you'd rather pay to have someone work the till, or a higher markup -- but it's a qualitatively different experience at a member-run joint. You can do the math for 13,000 people's 2.5 hours if you must, but there's soooooo much more to that equation. Plus, I don't work for 10 bucks an hour, do you? The staff people at the Coop make at least twice that, plus paid vacation and health insurance. Paying a living wage is important to the place...
We get stuff from some of the same distributors as health food stores, and some restaurant purveyors - but we also have farmers we buy directly from -- so it's like having the Greenmarket all week (but cheaper), for fruit and veg, for meat, for biodynamically grown jasmine rice from some small producer in Arkansas. It's really quite a complicated system, lovingly tended by some idealistic people that care about good food. -
Evilbert wrote:
Some of the best things in life aren't economically efficient.
re-read my post. 2.5 hrs/week x $10/hr = $25/month in staff wages to cover my labor. That doesn't even come close to the claimed 30% savings I'd have on my monthly grocery bill, so why even bother with the enforced labor? -
I'm a new member with some misgivings also. And I'd never refer to this co-op as efficient... There are many, many things I'd like to apply some business operations efficiencies to, but I'm not committed or passionate enough to put forth the effort needed to have a committee approve the process to study such things. But, the idea of community is pretty neat, and having a source for great food that's been researched to come from responsible means without having to do that research myself is fantastic. And the cheese! Oh the cheese... May end up resigning when Trader Joe comes to the BK though, if I keep getting annoyed with long waits in line and shift work full of people who can't really smile.
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I think you guys are right, maybe I don't get it. I just thought it might be cool to buy some good quality produce at a decent price, but it seems like you have to be a bit more into "community work" or something to get into it.
Maybe some of you chaps had a more privelidged upbringing than myself, but I once stacked shelves for poverty wages and I'll be damned if I'm doing it again for free, especially after pulling 60-70 hr weeks in my day job
doctorj wrote: [quote=Evilbert]
Some of the best things in life aren't economically efficient.
re-read my post. 2.5 hrs/week x $10/hr = $25/month in staff wages to cover my labor. That doesn't even come close to the claimed 30% savings I'd have on my monthly grocery bill, so why even bother with the enforced labor?
Umm....stacking shelves and jockeying tills is among the "best things in life"? wow....
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Evilbert wrote: I think you guys are right, maybe I don't get it. I just thought it might be cool to buy some good quality produce at a decent price, but it seems like you have to be a bit more into "community work" or something to get into it.
Some of the best things in life aren't economically efficient.
Maybe some of you chaps had a more privelidged upbringing than myself, but I once stacked shelves for poverty wages and I'll be damned if I'm doing it again for free, especially after pulling 60-70 hr weeks in my day job
[quote=doctorj][quote=Evilbert]
re-read my post. 2.5 hrs/week x $10/hr = $25/month in staff wages to cover my labor. That doesn't even come close to the claimed 30% savings I'd have on my monthly grocery bill, so why even bother with the enforced labor?
Umm....stacking shelves and jockeying tills is among the "best things in life"? wow....
I guess it has to be about much more than money. When you consider the average income of folks in this neighborhood, there is no chance that the savings on the cost of groceries could possibly be worth 2.5 hours of their time. That would have to be some damn cheep food! -
The OP makes the point -- you don't really need to be into any ideology to appreciate the coop. The "good food, cheap" works across the spectrum.
If you're making a calculation about the $50/hour that you value your time at, and you're working a 12 hour day ETC, then it doesn't work -- unless you find whatever you do on your coop shift relaxing or enjoyable. Some people like to throw around boxes for a couple hours.
The cost-benefit analysis breaks down if you don't factor in the non-cash variables. I'd be more aggravated waiting home for a Fresh Direct delivery than I would be waiting in line at the coop, fer instance. -
To me the Coop is really simple. If you like it and think 2.5 hours a month won't damage your social life you join. If you don't like it or can't spare 2.5 hours a month you don't join.
What I don't understand is why so many people that don't like the coop keep talking about it, trying to get other people to dislike it. -
m_s_cooper wrote: I'm a new member with some misgivings also. And I'd never refer to this co-op as efficient... There are many, many things I'd like to apply some business operations efficiencies to, but I'm not committed or passionate enough to put forth the effort needed to have a committee approve the process to study such things. But, the idea of community is pretty neat, and having a source for great food that's been researched to come from responsible means without having to do that research myself is fantastic. And the cheese! Oh the cheese... May end up resigning when Trader Joe comes to the BK though, if I keep getting annoyed with long waits in line and shift work full of people who can't really smile.
Smiling is considered to be anti-socialist behavior under terms of the Worker/Cooperative Joint Understanding of Elective Labor Procedures - punishable be no less than 3 and no more than 6 hours of pulling ears off of potatoes. -
gomeslim wrote: To me the Coop is really simple. If you like it and think 2.5 hours a month won't damage your social life you join. If you don't like it or can't spare 2.5 hours a month you don't join.
I agree. Most of the static about the place comes from people who don't shop there, but never miss an opportunity to use it for a creative writing exercise.
What I don't understand is why so many people that don't like the coop keep talking about it, trying to get other people to dislike it.
(yeah, Livetotravel, I'm lookin' at you) -
pitu wrote: [quote=gomeslim]To me the Coop is really simple. If you like it and think 2.5 hours a month won't damage your social life you join. If you don't like it or can't spare 2.5 hours a month you don't join.
I agree. Most of the static about the place comes from people who don't shop there, but never miss an opportunity to use it for a creative writing exercise.
What I don't understand is why so many people that don't like the coop keep talking about it, trying to get other people to dislike it.
(yeah, Livetotravel, I'm lookin' at you)
Guilty as charged :oops: But it's sooooo enjoyable and such an easy target. :sunny: I guess it comes from having lived for a short while in the People's Republic of Santa Monica.
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