I was amazed to see this documentary yesterday as I had no idea that such coop existed, especially in the US. This coop was originally founded in 1973 and it still is a very successful model of co-managing food resources in a way that the costs are decreased and the quality of the products gets better. Doc says that also Le Louve market in Paris was founded on the same principles more recently (2010). While here in Greece access to grocery is still very direct through local, open markets or smaller grocery stores, in the US and especially New York, this is not the case. People in the documentary explained how scarce and expensive quality food is and how the coop changed all that for the better. I was impressed by the coop’s organization; its principles and the way it brought people together not only as consumers, but also as members of a community. I got the following description from the doc’s webpage:Â
FOOD COOP explores how ordinary people working together can upend the received wisdom of corporate America. Instead of treating shoppers as cash cows to be milked dry through infantalizing and manipulative marketing schemes, the Park Slope Food Coop believes in making its shoppers real stakeholders —literally the store’s sole shareholders— expected to shoulder the banal responsibilities that keep the massive machine going: receiving deliveries, cleaning floors and grease traps, putting stickers on produce, shelving cans, cutting cheese, putting spices in bags, scanning and weighing groceries—and standing at the exit to check the receipts of shoppers, who are almost physically forced the store by the constant crowds. It’s brutal, simple cooperative commerce—and no grocery store in New York City can touch its success.
It’s worth the shot to watch this. Very inspiring.