food co-ops
Sep. 23rd, 2018 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwThe Harvest Food Co-op is again in dire financial straits. I don't ever make it to the one in JP, but in Central Square, some shelves look bare-ish while other things (including fresh produce) are well-stocked. There is a fine line between saving money on ordering and alienating the customers. The hope is that a consortium of co-ops will buy them out. The previous time things looked this bad, the member equity requirement went way up and there was a move across the street to a slightly smaller footprint, to save on rent. If they/we (I'm a fully vested member) go out of business, I'll miss it a lot, especially now that I'm trying to avoid Whole Foods. The Amazon takeover has upset a lot of people, including many workers
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/whole-foods-workers-consider-unionizing-fight-amazon-changes/
I've been involved with store-front co-ops (as opposed to the even older style of collective buying where members had to pick up the goods and distribute them among the group) since 1977, when I lived in Delaware for about six months. I was pleased to see that the Newark (new ark) co-op is still thriving, although clearly in more modern form. http://www.newarknaturalfoods.com/
When I was a worker-member there, it was a small space in a wooden (as I recall) building. I did two shifts a week to qualify for a household membership discount, because I worked part-time and my housemates didn't have time to spare. I think the employee version of the co-op is more efficient than having members do the labor, because my recollection (particularly at the Arlington Center co-op of blessed memory) is that we untrained working members sometimes spilled the stuff we were transferring to bins, and other costly mess-ups. Trying to be profitable (or at least break even) always seems to be a problem. The Arlington Co-op in the 1990s moved from the basement under the Regent Theatre (now used by the Dance Inn) to the storefront of doom at street level by the bus stop (where two different ice cream shops have come and gone since then, plus maybe a pizza place in between?). The plan was that there would be more foot traffic if the store was obvious, and didn't involve stairs, but the additional revenue from bus riders buying snacks while waiting didn't make up for the greatly increased rent.
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/whole-foods-workers-consider-unionizing-fight-amazon-changes/
I've been involved with store-front co-ops (as opposed to the even older style of collective buying where members had to pick up the goods and distribute them among the group) since 1977, when I lived in Delaware for about six months. I was pleased to see that the Newark (new ark) co-op is still thriving, although clearly in more modern form. http://www.newarknaturalfoods.com/
When I was a worker-member there, it was a small space in a wooden (as I recall) building. I did two shifts a week to qualify for a household membership discount, because I worked part-time and my housemates didn't have time to spare. I think the employee version of the co-op is more efficient than having members do the labor, because my recollection (particularly at the Arlington Center co-op of blessed memory) is that we untrained working members sometimes spilled the stuff we were transferring to bins, and other costly mess-ups. Trying to be profitable (or at least break even) always seems to be a problem. The Arlington Co-op in the 1990s moved from the basement under the Regent Theatre (now used by the Dance Inn) to the storefront of doom at street level by the bus stop (where two different ice cream shops have come and gone since then, plus maybe a pizza place in between?). The plan was that there would be more foot traffic if the store was obvious, and didn't involve stairs, but the additional revenue from bus riders buying snacks while waiting didn't make up for the greatly increased rent.
