Grocery Story by Jon Steinman

Author:Jon Steinman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771422963
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Published: 2019-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

Working Members

With the exception of the Park Slope Food Co-op (1973) and a little more than a handful of smaller co-ops, today’s food co-ops rely almost entirely on paid labor. The days of co-ops being exclusive to those who participate are mostly a thing of the past. But that doesn’t mean Park Slope has been asleep at the wheel. The co-op has successfully preserved a model that returns substantial benefit to eaters. If anything, the co-op should receive some sort of heritage designation to protect the model as an example of “what’s possible.” Park Slope’s core team of 77 staff are paid to run the store, but that only accounts for 25 percent of the co-op’s labor. The other 75 percent comes from the co-op’s 17,000 members, each of whom works a mandatory 2 hours 45 minutes every four weeks. Miss a shift? You owe two. Fail to complete the two, you’re suspended from shopping until you do. The benefits of this model are huge. Labor is one of the largest expenses at food co-ops — representing anywhere between 18–30 percent of sales. By eliminating 75 percent of Park Slope’s labor expense, members are rewarded with 20–40 percent savings on their food purchases — all for less than three hours of work commitment per month.351 That’s a highly worthwhile investment, and the demand for it is high. The co-op became so busy it was forced to cap its membership at seventeen thousand. In 2018, Park Slope finally announced plans for a second store.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.