Grocery Co-Op Puts People Out of Work
The Missoulian ran a front page story extolling the benefits of a new Missoula grocery community Co-Op. The primary reason behind the Co-Op is to combat high food prices due to the majority of a conventional grocery store's expenses being in labor and payroll.
the co-op model aims in the long run to make a dent in huge labor costs that are normally passed onto customers at the checkout line.
Jacobson, who just returned from an immersion in Brooklyn's legendary Park Slope Food Co-op, said labor costs account for some 75 percent of a grocery bill.
In other words, they are running a grocery store without employees. Employees that could be working and making a living for their family. Employees that could be productive citizens in our community. How can these members of the Community Co-Op take away jobs just to satisfy their own selfish needs. They are probably denying jobs for five to ten people!
I also found several glaring contradictions in the story and the mission of the Co-Op.
A small grocery store with a mission to provide healthy, local food at affordable prices
While their claim is lower prices, lower prices are not all that important or achievable.
Still, the price of every individual item may not be cheaper now than what shoppers can find elsewhere, said coordinator Kate Keller. But the co-op model aims in the long run to make a dent in huge labor costs that are normally passed onto customers at the checkout line.
Keller said the co-op adds 25 percent across the board to all products. That means if the co-op gets a bargain price, it passes that deal directly onto its customers. It also means the store won't sell products at cost just to bring people into the store.
While Keller said more members could mean a smaller markup down the road, shoppers who belong to the co-op aren't only interested in cost.
«I don't really look at it that way. I look at it as, this is my co-op, and I own a share in this co-op,» said Valerie Coulter, who belonged to the buying club.
Coulter, however, prefers an Oregon produced organic ice cream. Not any locally produced (sustainable) ice cream.
To her, that means shopping at a store that carries Alden's Ice Cream in Cookies 'n' Cream. So she requested the organic product from Oregon, and soon enough, it appeared in the freezer.
Then the very next paragraph reinforces the contradiction of the above sentence and the Co-Op's mission.
Part of its mission is strengthening the local food system, and that means ordering products from farms in the area. Keller said it also means working on food policies with the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition about how to preserve valuable farmland in the area.
I will bet this Co-Op doesn't last a year. Of the 400 some members, only a few will actually work and they will soon tire of carrying the load. It's the 80/20 rule.
I am assuming a significant majority of these Co-Op members are the same people who strongly supported raising the minimum wage, oppose drilling for oil in ANWR and the Gulf, and support the use of corn ethanol.
They are being terribly unfaithful to their beliefs. They should hire people and pay them a living wage plus benefits. They should celebrate the high prices of groceries because they are saving the earth by doing so.
By not doing so shows their phoniness and dishonesty.
I give it less than a year.
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15 comments
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15 comments
5 months and 18 days ago
I am one of the General Coordinators and the produce buyer at Park Slope Food Coop. Brooklyn, NY. 35 years ago and every year since, detractors have told us that we wouldn't last a year. Why do people like to slam people who are trying to improve the lives of a few people?
We do not think that we are taking away jobs from a few families, but that we are providing high quality, low cost food for over 10,000 families.
Why assume you know what that the people building this food coop believe in? A real journalist would ask them
5 months and 18 days ago
Andy-
Why do you hate capitalism so much?
Is it because you hate America?
5 months and 18 days ago
Allen,
WalMart also provides high quality, low cost food for millions of families AND provides hundreds of thousands of jobs, yet they are vilified by the left. How do you feel about WalMart?
I'm not a journalist, I'm a Conservative blogger who comments on politics and expresses my opinion.
Steve,
You must not understand the difference between Capitalism and Socialism. This Co-Op is Socialism not Capitalism. Here's a definition to help you out.
And here's a definition of Socialism.
5 months and 18 days ago
Here are some ways that the Park Slope Food Coop differs from WalMart. We do have about 60 employees all of whom get a generous benefit package with no employee contribution. The wages are equal for all hourly workers, $21.00 and hour.
We do not sell foods with artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. We do not sell cigarettes. We buy as much as possible from local small family farms, much of which is organic. We sell grass fed beef, not grain fed. WalMart is certainly cheap, but «high quality»? They have aisles and aisles of junk to stuff the American stomach and profit the corn and soy based agribusiness interests.
I agree with your criticism of Steve, and appreciate your correction of my misconception that you are a journalist
5 months and 17 days ago
Nice, Andy. A different kind of grocery business comes in to COMPETE with another kind of grocery business and you call it socialism? Are you really that dense?
Which part of the co-op is owned by the government? Are there price controls placed on it by the government? Where is this «centralized planning» mentioned in your definition?
More to the point - what's wrong with you, man?
Would you suggest that the government interfere here to shut the co-op down? As a big fan of capitalism, shouldn't you be able to rest assured that the market will fix this problem on its own?
5 months and 17 days ago
Steve,
Calm down. Go back and actually read my post. My goal is to point out the hypocrisy. I am making assumptions, based on my experience and knowledge, that the owners of the co-op support Liberal views of offering a living wage and using corn for fuel while opposing increasing the supply of oil through increased domestic drilling.
I never said the co-op is owned by the government nor did the definition of socialism I quoted. The owners of the co-op created their own mini socialist system with the store.
The Board of Directors (central planning) makes all decisions and controls the price with a 25% MU across the board.
Check the definition of Socialism again... the word co-op is short for cooperation.
No, I absolutely do not think the government should shut them down. I actually admire them for trying to enter the market but I found it ironic and hypocritical. I think human nature and market forces will shut them down in less then a year - like I said in the post.
5 months and 16 days ago
You find their actions hypocritical with the positions that you've assumed they hold. It must be nice to know where people stand on all the issues before you even talk to them.
And, by the way, you still don't know what you're talking about with concern to Socialism. But you go right on quoting definitions.
5 months and 15 days ago
Steve, Andy always assumes to know what Liberals think. Remember, he used to be one too so that gives him this power to read Liberal minds!
Besides, it is so much easier to create an argument that makes sense when you use figments of your imagine, complete with conveniently absurd assumptions, rather than argue against read, flesh and blood, people.
That is the only way his contentions make sense Steve, is to assume our positions for us.
5 months and 15 days ago
Andy,
I really appreciate how you've gotten a couple of lefties to defend capitalism.
5 months and 15 days ago
So what are you both saying? These people don't hold the beliefs I assume they do?
5 months and 15 days ago
We are saying that we don't know, and neither do you. It is probably the biggest problem that you have; you constantly assume to know the beliefs of others. I know you do it all the time with me,and most often you are incorrect on those assumptions.
It is one thing to assume you know where someone else stands; it is another thing entirely to write posts based on those assumptions and balance all of your logic upon them.
5 months and 15 days ago
Leftist Logic. Make no assumptions or conclusions about what other people do based on their actions, only on their intentions.
Andy, please remember that these leftists have good intentions, and you're not being fair by judging them by their actions.
5 months and 15 days ago
I wouldn't bring it up if it were not a pandemic problem at The Hammond Report...
5 months and 13 days ago
Right on, Andy! Albertsons, Safeway and Rosauers are closing their doors and Missoula unemployment numbers are going through the roof since the co-op opened.
5 months and 9 days ago
I'm sick of having volunteer journalists take away paying jobs from professional hacks like me.
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