Park Slope Food Coop Considers Second Location: Report

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — The Park Slope Food Coop is looking to increase its cooperation by opening a second location, according to its in-house newspaper, a revival of a process that began right before the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

To do that, the famous cooperative grocer — the largest food cooperative which operates almost exclusively on member labor in the world — will need to find up to $20 million of outside financing, as well as lots of internal consensus.

Nearly three years ago, the financial situation at the Coop was dire, with the cooperative asking for loans from its members and increasing the traditionally low markup for its goods.

Now the financial picture is far less gloomy according to the Coop's newspaper, The Linewaiter's Gazette.

During the November General Meeting, Second Location Study Committee members told their fellow Coop members how "it is clear now that we will emerge from the pandemic financially solvent," according to the Gazette.

The Coop, the presentation shared, will soon have nearly $6 million in cash-on-hand, an increase of $1.8 million compared to the start of the pandemic.

And the Coop is bursting with new members, the Gazette wrote.

"We have grown the Coop by 3,000 members for a total of 14,693 over the past 11 months, and net sales are up 10% through week 36 compared to the same point last year," committee members presented at the meeting according to the Gazette.

Membership is still down from its pre-pandemic number of 17,000.

While the 2020 study does not name a specific location, members soon turned the conversation towards where a second location should be, the Gazette reported, and how it could address food and equity issues in Brooklyn.

Members voiced concern that the new site should be easy to access for lower-income members, the Gazette reported, while also balancing financial viability by finding a "fairly dense" location while also remaining close — but not too close — to current Coop members who could support the location at its opening.

The Gazette wrote that Study Committee Member Cary Hirschstein and the rest of the committee was “hearing loud and clear” that access for lower-income members should be a priority in the new location.

The Coop has been seeking a second location for years as the current facility limits the number of members who can join.

In the report, the Coop says that between 2009-2019, membership growth was limited to a mere 1,500 people, a huge reduction from the rapid expansion of the previous decade when 10,000 people joined the Coop.

The next step for the Coop, according to the Gazette, is to hold a membership-wide referendum in order to approve the creation of a new Second Location Steering Committee.

Note: The reporter is a former member of the Park Slope Food Coop.