my first cent, socialism shouldn’t be a dirty word. it works for denmark and sweden why can’t it work for us? we might be lazy and snobbish but not all of us stink.

second cent, i shop at trader joe’s for price and convenience but when i compare the prices and the time i wait in line to the coop’s savings and 2 hours, 45 mins spent on work…. sorry to say, i’m still team-tj.

Park Slope Food Coop (PSFC)

Key Foods, Park Slope (KF)

Whole Foods, Union Square (WF)

Trader Joe’s, Brooklyn (TJ)

ITEMS:

Soda Water (1 liter)
0.60/0.99/0.79/0.89
(PSFC/KF/WF/TJ)

Organic Broccoli (lbs)
2.52/3.69/2.99/3.89

Organic Bananas (lbs)
0.82/2.99/0.99/0.75

Organic loaf of Bread
4.39/4.99/4.59/3.49

Organic Milk (1/2 gallon)
2.49/4.49/3.99/3.69

Free Range Boneless Chicken Breast (lbs)
3.29/5.19/5.99/6.99

Organic Potatoes (lbs)
1.14/1.66/1.29/0.80

Tropicana Orange Juice (1/2 gallon)
3.36/3.99/4.39/2.99

Cage Free Extra Large Eggs (dozen)
3.25/4.19/4.99/4.19

Organic Butter (8 oz)
1.87/2.99/4.49/1.99

Organic Whole Wheat Pasta (lb packet)
1.81/2.99/3.19/1.29

Organic Red Delicious Apples (lbs)
0.99/2.99/1.99/1.29

Organic Tomatoes on the Vine (lbs)
2.49/3.49/3.89/2.99

Organic Corn (each)
0.36/1.50/0.69/0.89

Organic Cremini Mushrooms (lbs)
2.88/2.99/3.99/2.49

TOTAL: $32.26/$49.13/$48.25/$38.62

WINNER: Park Slope Food Coop

Who are you? I’m a self employed entrepreneur. Right now I’m doing a startup with my wife, helping people save money and I live about a 15min walk from the coop. What are you doing? My job at the coop is to cut cheese. Oh, I heard about you guys. I hear cutting cheese is a coveted role. [Laughs] Is it really? I guess I’m living the dream. I would of thought the checkout were.  That too. I have a background in architecture and my mind thinks spatially and I like nothing more than taking a big wheel of cheese and cutting it. It’s a spatial strategy right? It’s a jigsaw trying to get nice slices of cheese from these different shapes. I’ll remember that next time I buy cheese. [Laughs] How long have you been a member? I took a long break in between but all together, I’ve been a member for 5 or 6 years. I live in the neighborhood and you can’t live in Park Slope without hearing about the Food Coop. There are too many stories and rumors about the Coop you cant avoid. What attracted us was the excellent food at a really amazing price and the politics are fun to poke fun at but it’s tolerable. Up to date with your shifts? Now I am. Now? I have been suspended and put on a grace period. I try to stay up to date but for every 100 that play by the rules someone is caught doing something whatever and the stories come from that. Why does it work? It’s an absolutely brilliant system. When you think about the size of the coop and the amount of work that has to be done here, the fact there are so few people here that are paid full time and it’s really a delicate system. So these rules have to be in place so this thing can function. If you think about it in that larger sense, its necessary to have these rules that people may think as unnecessary for this whole thing to function properly. It’s a big deal. The rules are tight. The roles are extremely well defined. Well-designed system. Everybody knows how to do his or her job well. What doesn’t work? I’m not a super hardish fan of the Coop but nothing comes to mind. Community? I don’t really participate in the community events but it’s certainly hard to shop here and feel like you are not part of a community. We’re a large group of people who are fairly comfortable with one another other. We’re also making food for other people’s consumption. You can’t walk through the aisles without thinking, Geez, that person is dong something for my food. The way we necessarily have to care for one another changes the nature of the place as well. Horror stories? I heard downstairs that someone bit into an olive that had a pit in it but didn’t have the sticker that read, “caution, may contains pits” and broke her tooth. She sued the coop. Watch out for the olives!

The Brian Lehrer Show: Food Coops, Park Slope & Beyond

The People’s Supermarket

Blog: Gowanus Lounge – Park Slope Food Coop Could Ban Israeli Products

Blog: The Brooklyn Paper – H-2-Whoa! Food Coop To Ban Bottled Water

Blog: Hungry Sofia – Coop High

Blog: Miconian – Purity of Food & Truth in Advertising

Who are you? I live about 10 blocks away. I’m web developer. How many mouths do you buy for? Just myself. So you live by yourself? No. I have roommates…. Who technically should be members of the coop. Ha! Don’t worry. I won’t tell. How long have you been a member? A year. I’ve actually been living in the neighborhood for four years and I’ve been meaning to join, for four years. A lot of my friends have a love/hate relationship with it. They say, it’s the best place ever but I don’t know if you would want to join. One of my friends finally decided to join and so we did it together. Are you up to date with your shifts? Yeah. I work a 6.30 in the morning shift so I took a time of the day I’m normally not awake and put it there so it’s not taking away any other time. I have it in my Google calendar, reminding me every 4 weeks. Why does it work? Produce is cheap and of good quality and the shift isn’t a big deal. I stock the produce. What doesn’t work? The lines. That’s why I come in during the day on Thursday. Can you tell me a horror story? I don’t have any [picks up a tomato] So, what’s for dinner tonight? I’m going out to eat tonight.

Tanya, 36

Who are you? I’m a jewelry designer. Live in park slope for over 10 years. Been a member for 6 years. Who many mouths are you buying for? 4 – me, my husband, my daughter and a dog. How did you find out about it? It’s hard to avoid the coop when you live here. Are you up to date with your shifts? No, not intentionally. I also do my husband’s shift and in the summer we like to go on vacations. The big problem is if you miss two shifts in a row they automatically take you off your regular shifts. A couple of times I’ve had to fight to get my regular shift because I know everybody on that shift. They’re like friends. So this summer I went to the office ahead of time and explained I was going to miss two shifts in a row and if they could please not take me off my shift and they didn’t. Communication is key. Why does it work? Park slope is a pretty liberal community and I think it proves that dreaded word “socialism” can work. This is essentially socialism working. It’s a coop, it’s a team effort. You really do feel like the coop belongs to you. The prices are great and the fresh produce is amazing. What doesn’t work? They could expand the tea section and cut down on the “frivolous” things like cookies. Someone just told me that they would like to see some Oreos in here. Pft! Ha! Do you feel part of a community? Yes. I made a lot of friends with many regulars. Our kids go to the same schools and say hi. I do read the newsletter from time to time. Cooking for dinner? I’m having 9 people for a holiday party and cooking lasagna al forno made of expensive meadowland ground beef, Italian sausage, lots of cheese, salad, garlic bread and cranberry tart. I bought the cranberries here. They are organic.

tea section
(looks well stocked to me)

Chow: Won’t Work for Food

Gothamist: My Beef With The Park Slope Food Coop

Blog: Life’s Too Short To Work At The Park Slope Food Coop….

Memorable comments:
Tim71mcd: Socialism doesn’t work because of the nature of human beings. Lazy and snobbish if they can get away with it. And stinky too. That “deodorant” they sell is horrible!!

marcus.simonson: I just found this and think it is hillarious http://twitpic.com/uhxmr quite fitting as a former member of this place

lewehrman: Working 2.75 hrs every 4 weeks adds up to about $130-$150 based on my salary. Add that to the cost of the food. Then add the hassle of actually finding an available shift to actually work. I did a side by side comparison of receipts and sorry but the “cheap” co op is just not that cheap.

Here’s what Joe Holtz has to say…
A handful of times over the years a few members have stated during the General Meeting’s open forum that the Coop “should consider having members who would not want to work but who would pay higher prices.” Although the members who raised this issue have usually been invited to submit their idea as an agenda item for the GM, I can’t recall their ever having done so. With the exception of one “store format” coop that requires members to work about six hours a year and requires all shoppers to be members, I know of no “store format” coop other than ours that requires work from all members capable of working. Years ago I met with two people from the organization “We the People” who wanted to start a coop in Oakland, California. Although the two with whom I met were enthusiastic about modeling their member work system after ours, not all the people who were working on starting the new coop were comfortable with that idea. Some were saying that perhaps membership should be open to all people, regardless of whether or not they were willing to work. Most coop’s offer their members a variety of membership levels to choose from, with the greatest discount on groceries going to those who do the most work and the smallest discount for members who choose not to work at all. Each of these levels represents a different economic “deal” between the coop and its member-owner.

I thought about this for a few days. One thing I believe is that on aver- age our members feel more connected to our Coop and care more about our Coop and feel more like owners than members of other coops. Requiring every member to pick one or another economic deal with the Coop or giving members the ability to switch from one deal to another would cause the members to be constantly rethinking which deal was best for them, and that process forms a barrier to making the ownership connection. You are always making a deal with an “other.” The more that a coop membership is different from a video store membership or health club membership, the more members will realize that they actually own their coop. If you feel like you own it, then you care about it. If you care about it, then the coop has to improve.

At the Park Slope Food Coop, by offering only one “deal,” which is simply called membership, I think we clear the way for a higher level of involvement and commitment. Also, I believe that a class system would emerge if members could choose a membership level, because the members with more money would tend not to work, and the members with less money would tend to work. There is also something about the very nature of work-that work, when performed in a decent environment, has a tendency among many people to enhance the possibility of a sense of caring, of pride and of ownership.

Keep in mind that all this talk about caring and the feeling of owner- ship is in terms of an average. To get that average we have dedicated members and we have alienated members and a wide range in between. I believe that our average member’s commitment is greater because of our work requirement than it would be with- out it. One of my greatest pleasures is when I see a member with very little sense of caring initially for the Coop come to care a great deal about the Coop. I believe this transformation occurs more often than not because of the participatory nature of our Coop.

Please consider giving your thoughts on this issue either by writing to the Linewaiters’ Gazette or by participating in General Meetings. We can only benefit from open discussion because we will understand better what we are doing and why we’re doing it.

Who are you? It all started in a small town…. [Laughs]. I’ve been working here full time for 7 ½ years as a coordinator of the bulk area. I live about a 20 min walk away. Before working, how long had to been a member? 6 years. I found out about it through a coworker and I joined because of the fact that food was fresh, organic and it was just not the economics but quality of food. Pretty much that was the motivating force and I like the whole concept of sense of community. When I joined it was just a little over 3,000 members. Now it’s 15,500. Why does it work? This particular one works because there is a core group of people that believe in the concept and keep certain core values even when people are trying to disrupt it and bring it down. It’s a delicate balance between respecting the individuality of the person and also serving the needs of the community. I’ve learned to develop a lot of respect for it for the general coordinators that do that. How do people try to bring it down? There was an article recently in the NY Times, a perfect example of someone complaining about the 2 ½ hours yadda yadda yadda. I’ve had some issues in the past… My feeling is you have 15,000 members, 15,000 personalities. You’re dealing with different people. So one day you might run into someone that is nice and one day you’ll bump into someone that is not nice. Just like you see in the world. And that was the balloon that got burst shortly after I joined. I thought I was going to join a coop. Everyone is going to be really nice. One happy family. As we know there are no happy families. [Ron is paged]. I have to go….

Moving on… [turn around]

Maryelen, 58

Hi! I have been a member here since 2004. Wow! You didn’t even let me ask the first question. [Laughs] I heard you talking with that guy. Right. Well, I help produce the newsletter, the Gazette. I’ve been on it for 3 years. [Looks in the trolley] How many mouths are buying for? I’m actually throwing a little party for 40 people. Little? [Laughs] Am I invited? [Nervous laughs] Ok… Are up to date with your shifts? Yes. It’s easy when all I have to do is work on the newsletter. Why does the Coop work? That’s a big question. We are part of a unique community. Park Slope itself is a unique community, although there are members that come from all over. I think the prices are great. It’s the spirit of community when doing your shopping. Knowing that everything is carefully sourced. The buyers really consider where the foods are coming from before they buy it. You don’t see any Nabisco products, like Oreos (though sometimes I wish they did). Everything is really fresh. They just did some stats, like during thanksgiving, we sold a case of produce every 55 seconds. The stuff is really fresh. I wonder if they stock my vegemite? I think they do…. somewhere. What doesn’t work? We’ve gotten really big over the past few years and that’s created difficulties in the shopping experience when the store is crowded. Any horror stories? The rules can seem really complex to newcomers. Like if you don’t come in for your shift you have to do two make-ups. They’ve created a bureaucratic system in way, to keep things organized. It can seem problematic at times. Have you participated in any community events? I have been to the general meetings at different points in time. What comes first, coop or food store? I think people have gotten use to the Costco model. They don’t understand that you can’t just walk in and buy stuff cheap for a reason. Costco is cheap because it comes from cheap labor and cheap resources. Here, it is different. We keep our prices down in a different way. It’s a difficult concept. It’s always a food store but is it a coop or food store first? It depends on the day.

PSFC Financial Report 08/09

Our strengths is the members and, on average, are quite connected because we require them to work and they participate in it and get to know other people here and they get to know that what they do is actually part of why the place works. That connection makes it so strong. It makes us get to have so many people that are really committed, people that really feel good about it, participating together. I think there is something in the human spirit that lifts the spirit in us humans. I think there is something there about that. That’s the over-arching strength. We are also good at keeping up with things. We are good at keeping track and reporting to our members, very frequently about the finances and good at having a newsletter and being transparent but our weaknesses is that I think we could do a lot better at communicating to our members about all kinds of things, or reeducating our members because they might have forgotten important things that they’ve already learnt. We do some of that but we could do better. We could do better training of our members so that they would be more effective in their work when they are here. Not to mention we are at membership over capacity, but that is also an opportunity.

busy aisles

Right now we have such demand for our coop we are actually slowing down the rate of which people could join by making people sign up for the new members orientation, the only way to join is to come to one and we are limiting the amount of people we are orienting. So we are limiting the inflow and limiting the growth down so this is an opportunity where now we are trying to help other people start coops in Brooklyn. There are 6 other groups we are working very actively to help start other coops in Brooklyn. I mean there are people in other places that try to start and we will help them and might be helping them right now (i.e. you). The 6 in Brooklyn are the ones we really are focusing on and hoping to get more coops going in Brooklyn & perhaps we wouldn’t be as crowded. Another one would be to utilize the internet a little more. We are not really “online”. Our members can choose their shifts online but it would be nice to setup profiles where they can keep track of their hours and statuses instead of coming into the store. This will also help with communication.

bulk items

As for threats? Mmmm… that’s a good question. I don’t really think of threats. I suppose a store could open that’s a fantastic store, that has great prices and people would think, why should I be bothering being a member of the coop if I can get great quality and great prices nearby. We don’t do any marketing (because we hadn’t need to). Our members have a choice to join or not (which is a threat too, I think) but right now we don’t have anything nearby that has great quality and great prices. I guess that could be a threat.

Adaku, 24

Hi. Hello. Who are you? I just moved to New York from Chicago. I live in Flatbush, Brooklyn, 2 miles from here. I work with young people and teach them how to be peer educators on sexual health issues and am also a dancer. What are you doing? I’m stocking the prepared foods. How long have you been a member? I’ve been a member for 2 months. My roommates told me about it, who are new New Yorkers as well. So we were looking for a good progressive community and a shop that sells good, local and cheaper products. How easy/hard is it to fit in time to work here? It relatively easy because of my schedule. I don’t have a 9-5 my schedule is pretty flexible. It works out really well. Wait! If you’re new then this is like your 2nd shift? It’s my third shift. Does that mean you don’t have any Coop horror stories? No not yet. Except for being in the basement. It’s too cold down there. It’s still warmer than outside. [Laughs] Yeah. Why do you think it works? It’s a lovely community of people. They have created a system that people can take ownership of the space. People feel like it’s their own. I think the products are good. The prices are really good. People are attracted to that. In your experiences, what doesn’t work? It’s small in here, really small. It can get really packed. You have to have a lot of patience. I know to come in the mid afternoon. Weekends are a definite no. It can get crazy. Did you take a look at prices elsewhere before joining? Yeah. We look at two other coops in our community and this was definitely the best one in terms of prices and working. There’s something about working for your food. When you graduate from stocking shelves, what job do you aspire to? I really like the cheese cutter group. They have music down there. They talk a lot more. I think they get to try the cheese too. Another one I heard is that the people that work at the check out get to flirt with customers. My roommate does that and she really likes that.

the cheese cutters gang
(they don’t look that cool)

How does this coop work?

The Coop works by requiring all our members to work, that’s the most important point of the Coop. Everybody has to put in a little bit of money when they first join. Everyone is going to be an owner of the coop and so when you are an owner of something, a small business, then you have to put come capital so you put in $100 member investment (which you can get back when you leave) but the most important and difficult thing is that we ask everybody to actually join in, cooperate and do part of the work.

I want to start a coop, where do I start?

You start with a group. A group of people that share the same ideas and goals, in your case, the media (It’s funny. I said this to the guys from England but usually it’s the other way around, individuals come together and a form group, a coop, and then the media picks up on it. You have the media starting the coop and then the people picking up on it. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes. Anyways….) I don’t think it’s an individual thing and so you need to get people going, you need to get community support. People have to really get involved, people have to say “this a great thing and I’m going to help start it” and you at least have to have some people that are willing to stick with it and get it going.

What are the important things to consider?

They should be answering questions like, why are they starting the food coop? Are you starting it because there are no other stores around? Are you starting it because there are plenty of stores and you’re not particularly satisfied? You’re not satisfied of the quality? You’re not satisfied of the price?  You don’t trust the ownership? Maybe the ownership is some big monster corporation that you think doesn’t really cares about anybody and isn’t necessarily telling you the truth about food. You might start the coop because you want a more truthful presentation of the food. There are plenty different reasons why you would want to start. You might also want to start because you think it’s great to have a community run business and it will bring people together and feel like a community. It’s very important that the reasons are identified for that particular community because it will help them figure out what kind of coop is needed, what model coop. The model should serve the need. First you have to look at the need then you decide the model to meet those. If you don’t have a good foundation, if you don’t understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, without that why are you doing it? If you don’t know you are in trouble.

How does this differ from other supermarkets and other coops?

Supermarkets are businesses, just like we are, some people forget that coops are businesses too, they just happen to be owned by many people but supermarket’s main over-arching goal is “What can we do to make money?” The coop is  “What can we do to serve our members?” Or to some extent it isn’t the coop that is asking that but it’s the members serving themselves so it would be “What can we do to help ourselves?” So the goal is the main difference.

As for other coops, it should be asked why are they different to us. They are the ones that broke away from what it is to be a coop. Most coops started in the 60s and 70s and had members work together. Our coop is now different from just about every other coop in the United States because we still require members to work. A lot of coops will sell to the public and they will sell to members and so at the store they will have 3 different prices one for the members who don’t work, members who work and for the public/non-members. Some coops got rid of that system but a lot still us it. Our coop doesn’t separate people like that. We separate people by saying “Do you want to join or not?” Either you are a member or you’re not. You can’t pay more and get out of working. Once you decide to be a member, then you are subject to our rules, which require you to work, unless you are disabled or just had a baby.

Why didn’t you open your food store to non-members?

We took very seriously the idea of cooperation and the name coop means people working together. We actually think it means that (I mean, I looked it up in Webster’s dictionary). We actually think that coop means working together or at least it means working together wherever possible. Working together is what’s crucial and so we kept trying to work at this until we could make it work. We kept trying to come up with a system and it was difficult. We were going to shut the coop down if we couldn’t make working together work and a lot of coops thought it was difficult and said, “Ok, it’s difficult maybe not everybody has to work. We’ll still have a coop”. As far as we are concerned we wouldn’t have a coop because why should we have a coop when there’s a supermarket or health food round the corner. What do we need a coop for if we can’t do it the way it should be done? So we were very focused on it.

Did you encounter any hardships when you first started?

We started with no member investment. That should be avoided. It’s good to have member investment. It sends the message too. It says, “You don’t just own this because you labor. You own it because you are investing your money” and that’s important.

Also the local community found it hard to accept us. When the coop first started here it was started by an incoming group of people who weren’t indigenous to the neighborhood. We were a group of 10 twenty-something year-olds who had yet to start a career, were poor(ish) and dissatisfied with not only the availability of food in the area but also the quality. We didn’t have any family in the neighborhood. We were young people who didn’t grow up here. They weren’t inviting to us. They were like “Who are those people trying to start a food coop here?” Now, the coop is more diverse than it use to be and as you can see members of the community have now become members of the coop. The coop has done a lot to reach out to the community. Members can clock off a shift by doing community service. We send people to the soup kitchen to make food, to make meals for poor people. We send a lot of food there and a lot of people and we participate with the city council, doing the sweeping up of the neighborhood twice a year. We are out there, getting involved.

The coop is growing and growing. How have you accommodated more members?

Well, we are at full capacity now and have had to slow down membership. But to accommodate new members we have added more hours and more jobs. We use to have a problem with members double parking outside the store. We’re also next to fire station and what if the fire engine couldn’t get to the fire on time because of us? So we asked them to not to park outside and instead created walker jobs where members of the exit staff would walk shoppers to their cars, apartments or subway stop in a 6/7 block radius. We also get more frequent deliveries, because one of the crunches in the basement is storing the food and we have to get more frequent deliveries but the lines are still long. There are more times when it is very busy now. We are having trouble. We really are at over capacity.

What’s the biggest misconception about the Coop?

We don’t make rules because we enjoy making rules. We make rules to protect the cooperation. You have to have rules about people doing their share and you have to enforce that because of the thousand and thousands of other people who reliably come here and actually make the place somehow work. Kind of amazing how they come here every 4 weeks and make it work. Like when I come here on weekends and there are 3 or 4 receiving coordinators supporting the stock effort and there is a technical support person here and that’s it. There is no other staff here and the members are working. Childcare is working. Everything is working. It’s just amazing and why is that? It’s because people came and they care. They care enough to come and once they get here they care about how they did their job. Now do they all care? Can you find someone that doesn’t? Absolutely but on average a high percentage care do care.

Is it fair to say it’s a coop first then a food store?

I don’t know. I don’t know how to answer that. I can tell you why we started and it’s still the same reason: build community; build cooperation; excitement about fresh food; and making it affordable. Those four things.

Who are your members?

I don’t know. Ask them.

Ok. I’ll find them…

It abides by the Rochdale’s 7 Principles of Co-operation opening ownership of the store to all it’s members and requiring them to contribute to it.

1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic Membership Control
3. Member Economic Participation
4. Autonomy and Independence
5. Education, Training and Information
6. Cooperation among Cooperatives
7. Concern for the Community

entrance worker

Shopping at the Food Coop is exclusively for its members and whether it’s to shop or start work, a swipe with a valid membership card is needed to enter the store.

Spread over 3 floors & a selling space of 6,000 sq2, the Coop works like any other supermarket except 80% of the workforce is made up of non-payroll members.

ground floor: store room

street level: selling space

upper level: administration

Apart from purchasing goods, payroll is the biggest budget biter. By keeping the costs down, the Coop is able to pass on the savings to its members. Products only see a 21% markup as opposed to the 50-100% charged at the average supermarket.

Members join a “squad”, a group of people that work the same shift once every 4 weeks, according to the ABCD Rotation Calendar. Shifts run at 2hrs 30mins (with a 15min overlap in between). These squads make up a committee. The workforce is made up of 4 committees:

1. Entrance & Exit: checking in shoppers and workers, check-out shoppers and walking team
2. Stockers: bag, label & stock the shelves
3. Receiving: receive & store goods
4. Administration: handles the paper work & membership

Up to 500 members work at the Coop everyday and on any given shift you’ll find: 30 entrance & exit members; 15 stockers; 9 receivers and 6 upstairs in the membership office, all managed by unpaid “squad leaders”.

receiving coordinator

As you can guess, consistency in the workforce is needed to help with the day to day running of the store so “coordinators” are employed to help facilitate operation. The 65 coordinators are paid employees that supervise and coordinate the labor of the 15,400+ members.

Member’s can swap their shifts online but most records are kept on file in the office or on the main system in the store. This information and their membership status are available to them when they swipe their membership card at the entrance desk in the store.

To help enforce this rule and maintain membership, if one shift is missed, the member is put on “alert” and would have to make that shift up along with an additional disciplinary shift. Two missed shifts, and the member is suspended from shopping at the store until further action is taken (though there are extensions and a 10-day grace period in which they will still have shopping privileges while they will work out their hours).

Other members work includes: construction, maintenance, fundraising, events, environment, website and contributing to the Linewaiters’ Gazette (the Food Coop’s bi-monthly publication).

working members stocking

Member’s are like shareholders. Monthly General Meeting has been the decision-making body of the Coop since it began in 1973.

General Coordinators are members of the upper level of paid management who are responsible for the overall management of the Coop. The coordinators acts as officers, they report to the directors but also are members who have the right to exercise their personal views.  Joe Holtz, a co-founder, acts as the Coop’s General Manager.

Incorporated in 1977, the Coop was legally required to have a board of directors. Board members are elected for terms of three years on a rotating basis once a year at the Annual Meeting, held in June. The Board’s role doesn’t overshadow or replace member initiative, discussion and decision-making that is the purpose of the General Meeting. Everyone who attends a meeting has a vote.

Occasionally, the Coop GM determines that a decision should be made by referendum.

Members will be given work credit for attending a general meeting, up to two shifts every calendar year.

community board

To become a member

1. Attend an orientation: When membership is available, orientation meeting will be held and open for sign up either via web or at the store
2. Choose a workslot: Depending on availability, members will choose a department and a shift that will reoccur every 4 weeks
3. Membership fee & investment: A $25 fee is required to join, along with a refundable $100 investment ($5+$10 for those on any income assistance program). The investment will be returned upon the termination of the membership
4. Membership card: a photo will be taken and attached to the card and inputted into system. An entrance worker will validate members by swiping the member’s card upon arrival to shop or work

Whether they live with family or with roommates, anybody in the same household that is eating the food or sharing in products bought from the Coop has to be a member. Each member has to pay the joining fee + investment and contribute the required hours. Members of the same household are able to cover each other’s shift, if needed.

Who doesn’t have to work?

• The disabled
• New parents
• Children under 18 (though with consent, children above 14 can cover a household members shift)
• Bereavement

Members can also accumulate hours or put their membership temporarily on hold.

PSFC Membership Manual

Established in 1973, the Park Slope Food Coop was formed by a small group (10 people, to be exact) of committed neighbors who wanted to make healthy, affordable food available to everyone who wanted it. Now, 15,500 members make up the Coop and they enjoy savings from around 20-40% on their groceries and contribute 2hrs & 45mins of work every 4 weeks. Stocking as much local produce as they can, environmentally friendly produce, trolley favorites and some hard to come by products fill the shelves (I hear Vegemite and Weet-bix are somewhere in there). It is a buying agent, not a selling agent and with an annual inventory turn of about 64 (compared to the supermarket’s 15) you can expect nothing but fresh.

Affordable healthy food isn’t the only goal of the Coop, they are also about community, building and sharing in collective success. With sales topping $35mil last year, the Coop is stronger than ever. It is one of the oldest and largest institutions of its kind in the US. Childcare is provided to members while they work and shop. They also host cooking classes, film night and concerts. General Meetings are the best way for members to participate in the governing the Coop.