Fun With Communism | We're all in this together at the Park Slope Food Coop

Finally a real sense of making some progress! Tonight I attended an orientation session at the Park Slope Food Coop, a membership cooperative grocery store focusing on local and organic meat, grains, and produce, as well as community and social responsibility. With over 13,000 "volunteer" members, the Coop boasts $27 million in annual sales. The broccoli bin gets refilled every 30 minutes on any given Saturday.

Orientation was led by Julie, a massage therapist by day, and Coop member for 7 years. Fellow orientees hailed from as nearby as Park Slope to as far as Queens, the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and Trinidad (okay, she's a student in NY). In all, there were 20 new members tonight -- typical for a session, of which there are 4 a week. That's 320 new members a month. Impressive from an organization that started when 5 guys who decided to buy a bag of rice together and split it in 1972, and incorporated a year later. Currently, members enjoy low prices (all items are marked up only 21% above cost) for their commitment of 2 hours and 45 minutes per month, and provide 75% of the labor needed to run the shop.

I'm honored to be a part of it, and look forward to meeting fellow members, learning where the produce and other products come from, and stocking those shelves.

UPDATE 3.20: I used my new member privileges to buy much-needed soap and toothpaste along with some fresh produce and eggs last night. I'm still embarrassed by how good it felt to actually buy something.