[Photo courtesy of bluesage on flickr]
Among life's constants is that the venerable Park Slope Food Coop is worth several good rants a year, not to mention hundreds of lesser ones. Even with the Red Hook Fairway taking a bite out of the Coop's hind quarter, little has changed except that members are now asking themselves why they're not shopping at Fairway. The latest life-affirming rant comes from Chow, and a writer who describes the Coop at "something between an earthy-crunchy health food haven and a Soviet-style reeducation camp." Given that Soviet-style experiences are increasingly hard to come by, we'll do a bit of copying and pasting:
I found a shopping experience stripped of all consumerist sheen: dim, warehouse-style lighting; narrow aisles; members grumbling to each other about the endless lines. Upstairs, I took my place among some 40 other prospective shoppers in rows facing a woman with a video projector. “We work every four weeks, not every month. Does everyone understand the difference?” the woman with the projector said in a baby voice, enunciating every word. Not everyone did.
And a bit about actually shopping:“How many bags?” Scanner Lady squawked when I returned, and I looked at her blankly. Turns out I was expected to estimate the number of bags I would need for my groceries before I would be allowed to receive the bags and put groceries in them myself.There's more. Download the old Soviet national anthem, click over and read.
· Won't Work for Food [chow.com]
· Fairway-Food Coop Death Match [Curbed]
· The Pink Underbelly of the Park Slope Food Coop [Curbed]