Park Slope Food Coop

raw · January 2007

Park Slope's Key Food on 5th Avenue is OK, but avoid the Key Food on 7th Avenue at ALL COSTS. On 7th Avenue, Key Food's over-priced, rotten produce will send you crying back to the co-op.

If you are close to the Key Food on 7th Avenue, Back to the Land offers some fresher versions of the same products for LESS. Examples include Wakim's Hummus, which costs over $2.50 at Key Food and $1.99 at Back to the Land.

If you need a special health food, Back to the Land would probably order it for you.

The only perk that Key Food on 7th Avenue ever offered was 24 hour service, which is no longer. The 7th Avenue location does not have a large selection and is the most expenisive Key Food I've discovered in the entire New York City region.

anonymous · January 2007

I cannot disagree with all the criticism on this thread of the PSFC. I've been a member off and on for almost 20 years (4 digit member number!) so I have experienced every crappy thing about the place and then some. But somehow, in spite of it all, I just adore the place. I think it is a remarkable institution to have survived and thrived all this time. In fact, I think it is unique in the entire United States, as a working members only co-op. Other co-ops seem always to give up on the working members model and to devolve first into a two-tiered membership system with some (probably less well-off) working for a discount, while others simply pay a joining fee. And then, eventually, they seem mostly to go under.

Having been a member for all this time, I have seen the Co-op get better and better, and I believe it will get better still. I have faith that the front end redesign will come, that debit cards will be accepted, and that getting out will get quicker!

When I first joined, the Co-op was just one building, not the three joined together that it is now. It didn't open until 3:30pm on weekdays. Shopping consisted of grabbing a box and pushing it along the floor as you filled it up. Check-out was done on adding machines, and scales hung from the ceiling. For produce, you had to convert the weight to a decimal, then you had to look up the price on a print-out and do the multiplication on the adding machine.

I love that everything I get at the Co-op is utterly fresh. Many months of the year, the produce you are buying was picked yesterday and delivered first thing in the morning. That's not true anywhere else but the green markets.

When my schedule was irregular, I quit, because it is just too difficult to maintain membership if you miss shifts. Now I never have any problems because I simply don't miss my shift except under very rare circumstances, and on my squad if you have a history of good attendance, you only receive one make-up if you call ahead. I highly recommend the early morning receiving shifts. Once every four weeks I get up early and I'm done with my shift before going on to my job. Easy. I don't think it's hard to get an early morning shift, by the way, if you're interested.

I agree that there are sometimes too many make-up workers in the store. I've had that experience when I've been on other squads. I sometimes think this could be a consequence of too many squads being lax about the double-make-up rule. I know that when I was on a maintenance squad where we all agreed -- hey, we're all adults here, let's not have a double make up policy -- that we had terrible attendance! Poor attendance leads to lots of make-up workers which leads to poor allocation of labor overall. And this poor labor allocation leads to my own pet peeve, which is shopping squads that don't manage to keep every single check-out spot covered! I hate that!

I hope the poster above who wants the Co-op to take better advantage of technology doesn't quit but instead finds his way onto a squad where his talents can be put to use. I sometimes see notices in the Gazette for this kind of thing. (Actually, I think the Shift Swap feature of the Co-op website has been improved recently.) There must be a technology squad of some kind -- maybe you could join it.

anonymous · January 2007

I quit the Coop and I'm lovin' it. Seriously. The fascist, dictatorial managment ("DMV run by hippies"), the 1970s granola-overloaded atmosphere, the massive inconvenience of having to work in order to pay for stuff (I already work!), the huge lines and crowds, the truly elitist attitude... it sucks, its not worth the $2.50 in per trip savings.

I want my grocery store to be a grocery store, not a forum for pedantic political/social/lifetsyle proseletyzing.

So, to turn this into a very positive thread... what places to PSFC quitters recommend for quality food?

My recommendations:

Eagle Provisions ... way down in south slope, 5th ave. and 18th. It has awesome, strange, fancy imported goods, Polish and eastern european foods, plus everything else, and its so pleasant shopping there. And real character! A little pricey but its worth it -- not good for produce, however.

Fairway ... and the cheap places (Faro, Met Foods, etc.) down south on 5th for essentials ... Young's produce (and its neighbor on the corner) on 5th around 15th (not a great selection but at least I can shop there in under 45 minutes)...

Anything else?

duffyssis · January 2007

Good to know! I need to find out if Eastern Car Service will pick up from there. If so, I will be in heaven.

anonymous · January 2007

I really laugh at people's complaints about the coop. Taken in a vacuum, the coop might seem fascist, but what about shopping elsewhere? Like grocery stores with staff that doesn't help or management that doesn't listen. Or security staff that treats customers as criminals? Seriously, I can't stand shopping at Target, Circruit City, CompUSA, Staples, OfficeMax or most chains nowadays.

Now yeah, the complaints about the coop seem harsh. But there is a difference between the coop and other places: As a member you can talk back and change things or explain things to others. I know that sounds "crazy" but if something seems weird--like a checkout worker being flaky--just go to a squad leader and let them know. Or go to the office and complain about a squad leader. Or forget about that word complain, just say something!

Compare that to Target where the employees don't care and the management don't care either. And I don't expect being treated like a king, but man. I love Amazon nowadays because my mailman and UPS man treat me with more basic respect than any of those places.

I think in general coop complaints are coming from people who have never worked retail or have no desire to work retail. And there's a solution to that...

There are other squads in the coop. Food packaging, receiving, office even childcare. But the problem with the shopping squad--and as a squad leader for 4 years I can say this--is many people rushing to do makeups want the relatively "easy" jobs on the shopping squad. Informing people wanting makeups that they need to go elsewhere is just amazingly annoying.

And as far as makeups go, I don't think anything should be changed to coop proceedure but one thing... There needs to be a better way for people to do makeups than just walking in. It causes conflicts, tensions and as a squad leader it causes me to spend more time negotiating with makeup workers I will only deal with that day than the loyal squad members that show up month after month.

As far as contacting a squad leader if you're going to be out goes, don't call the coop. The office just doesn't keep track of that stuff. Find out who your squad leader is and get their phone or e-mail address. Heck, the coop list of members on your squad lists phone numbers and names as well.

The problem is not that coop has too many members. But more that the coop has issues managing the members it has. And it causes tensions all around.

Oh, and as far as complaints about lines go, I don't accept that as a real problem. Go to Target and even they have lines backup up on weekends and weeknights. As a squad leader I can tell you that people waiting on the checkout line seem to just be impartient and I think it just is normal in any line. Heck, I was at the post office more than a few times with onl TWO people in line--one me, one someone else--and people will complain.

In general, I think the "Zen attitude" thing is a bit off. I prefer to think that an attitude of "We're all members and I'll try to understand where this worker/member is coming from..." is a better attitude.

For example... I had a worker show up for a shift once and she had massive allergies and only told me as much when I assigned her to be a co-counter. She was acting strange. And when the cashier showed up she was practically about to freak out until we asked her "What's wrong?" and she explained that she was worried that when she went down to co-count in the basement, there might be mold and that would cause an attack. Without hesitation I said, "Then you don't have to do that... We'll find someone else..." And the cashier even explained to her that it wan't the coop's job to just shove people into work. People should do what they can do, and if they can't then they don't have to do it.

It all boils down to basic communication. And I think more than anything if you can speak for yourself and communicate with others, then they coop is a great place. But if you're the kind who will stew or be passive agressive about things and not speak up for yourself... Then the coop is not for you...

And if you feel stressed but are on the fence about leaving, just go to the office and tell them what the deal is and you can go on a leave of absence. Which essentially puts your membership on hold. It's better to do that--and let the office know about your frustrations--than to just leave and have the office assume there is no "backstory" to why you left. And perhaps your makeup scenario is something the office workers have other complaints about... And your complaint just adds to the message something is broken and needs to be fixed...

Sorry for the rambling tone of this, but a tad stuffed/ill and just wanted to share my thoughts.

idlewild · January 2007

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As a shopping squad leader I feel your pain. I have given up trying to please make-ups. My standard is to fill up the check-outs, front door security along with 2-3 people at the back door and one or two dedicated co-counters. I put cart walkers last, unless of course the office gave the person that assignment, which btw I think is pretty ridiculous. It doesn't take talent to walk a cart and most of the people who ask for walkers are perfectly capable of walking and returning the carts themselves.

As for make-ups, yeah they can suck. The worst is when you're on a shift and the squad leader is incompetent. I've been on a few make-ups where I was moved from one position after 30 minutes because a regular finally showed up, finding myself with nothing to do afterwards. Or as in one time I was working at an express checkout and these crazy ladies came with one cart with over thirty items rationalizing that since they were shopping together it was okay to do that. I turned them down, they spoke with the squad leader, the squad leader backed down and told me to check them out.

After saying this I still stand by the PSFC. I have shopped at all the chains in the Slope, the Fairway in Gowanus , the Farmer's Market and some places in Manhattan, all in all even though some stores may have goods that the Co-op doesn't you cannot beat the PSFC for the quality. Hands down they pretty much have the best. And I like the people who work there.

Park Slope Food Coop

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