The Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn is one of
the most enduring and successful cooperatives in the U.S. Membership
at the Coop has been growing steadily since its opening in 1973 and
the Coop is about to expand its operations into an adjacent building.
Samantha Knowlden met Allen Zimmerman, the Coop’s Produce Buyer,
to discuss the dynamics of procuring organic produce and working
cooperatively
with local farms.
How was the Coop was established?
The Park Slope Food Coop (PSFC) was founded by about eight people
in 1973 who thought there must be a cheaper way of buying food. The
philosophy was for people to get together to own their own food store,
to decide what food they’ll carry and who to buy it from, and
to save some money.
The Coop went out of business twice in 1973 because they couldn’t
get enough people to do the work. Even when people volunteered, you
couldn’t be sure if they would show up. After the second time it
closed down, a work requirement was established. Scheduled work was
deemed more valuable than unscheduled work; that’s how the work
slot was created. Mandatory labor was not all that unusual in 1973,
but has become possibly unique at this point. Since then, the Coop
has
been an overwhelming success.
How long have you been at the Coop?
I’ve been a member since 1974. I’ve always wanted to work
here and I’ve been an employee since 1988. On my very first day,
I was assigned as the produce buyer’s assistant and have been in
the produce department ever since. I apprenticed for about seven years
as the substitute buyer, so I really learned it from the basement up.
I’ve been the Produce Buyer now for seven years and consider myself
to still be an apprentice. It’s constant learning.
So what are you learning now?
I’m always learning about what people want. I feel like I’m
rediscovering the seasons. I’m always learning new sources and
new farms and trying new foods. What people want changes. That will
transition me into a branch of say, vegetarian food, like raw food.
I try to get the things that I think people who eat raw foods want.
So I’m constantly learning.
What do you think has contributed to the success of the Coop?
I think the Coop has done a very good job of helping people feel
that they belong to something that’s worth belonging to. I think
that member labor is the difference because if you put labor into a
place, it’s very different from putting money into a place. Most
people work in groups, so you actually get to know people, to see them
again and recognize them and have relationships, which for some people
are decades old. I think that this form of organization is one of the
biggest reasons for success; and things like savings are only secondary.
The savings are crazy. The buyer will ask what I’m selling Gala
apples for. And I’ll say, “76 cents a pound” and the
buyer will say, “That’s insane! You’re just giving them
away!” But, we’re still making a 20 percent markup.
How is the Coop able to offer such good prices?
We decided to not make a lot of money. But we’re also big enough
to command better prices. It’s not like there is a bidding war
for the PSFC’s business. In the supermarket world, we’re tiny.
But in the healthfood world, we’re not so tiny. We buy well over
2,000 cases of produce a week. Our good prices are based on really good
negotiations with suppliers. I’m not a killer negotiator. I would
never call up somebody and say, “If you want our business, you’re
gonna have to…” It’s a very cooperative give and take.
But we don’t always buy the cheapest. I think first of all, I’m
going to try to buy the best. The best is going to be from the best
farms. It’s going to be the freshest or possibly from someone who
handles it better than someone else. Anybody who does a little bit extra
to make sure that we’re getting exactly what we want and takes
good care of it may get more business than someone who’s actually
selling it for less.
Not every farm is equal. Some farms really care about the quality of
their soil and the vegetables they produce. It’s important to
know where something grew and if it made sense when it grew there,
and who
packed it and how they handled it.
I think that some people would be uncomfortable to know that I could
get produce for much cheaper than what our local farms will charge.
You can’t say you support local farms unless you support local
farms by making a commitment and buying from them.
How does the Coop work with local farmers?
I talk to farmers and cooperative consolidators not only to order
food but also before the season to plan, letting them know how much
we’d be willing to buy each week. It’s about making a commitment,
or making no commitment—it is just as valuable to say, “Don’t
plant a ton of zucchini like everybody else because I can’t promise
that I’ll buy it. But if you plant soybeans, we promise you we’ll
buy them.” So even before seeds are bought, we have a relationship.
Then I talk to people several times a week to see what’s coming
up, to find out what they need help with, to let people know what prices
are out there so they can figure out what makes sense for them.
The Coop’s commitment to local farms is an intense one. Local has
a kind of large definition though. I like to try to support the little
farms that are holding onto their little thing, with golf courses growing
up all around them, and I think that’s part of the same thing as
supporting a local farm. Right now, for example, Lacinato Kale comes
from a giant California grower; but there is one little farm in Florida
that did its first kale this week and I feel like I’m buying local
when I support Florida against the California giant. A small county
farm in Florida is only relatively speaking a local farm in that sense
Have you developed direct relationships with certain farmers and
cooperatives?
We have some very long relationships—loyalties—that go
way back before I started working here. We have had the same banana
supplier and sprouts supplier forever. There are local farms, particularly
from upstate New York in the Fingerlakes region, that we have been working
with for a long time. We’ve been buying from the Fingerlakes Organic
Growers cooperative for 15 or 20 years.
I speak directly to the farmer at Blue Heron farm. There were weeks
this winter when there were actually no beets in stores anywhere in
the country. This farmer had a few hundred pounds left and so the Coop
was able to get beets when no one else could.
Coop members might say, “I think you can get Valencia oranges now,
I saw them somewhere else.” And I’ll say, “But I spoke
to the people at Sundance Natural Foods in California who pack them
and they say they’re not sweet and that we should wait one or two
weeks; and they’ll let us know when they really taste good.”
So, even off season, I’m talking to someone 3,000 miles away who
says don’t buy it, it’s not good enough for the PSFC. That’s
great! Right now, I would never carry organic navels because I think
it’s late in the season, but the grower said, “They’re
going to knock you out, trust me on this one.” So, right now, in
the Coop, there are these gigantic navels and they’re fabulous.
So there are some direct relationships. We buy almost all the Florida
citrus from one guy and we have for over ten years and even in blind
taste tests, he wins all the time.
Why is their food so much better?
In the case of Sundance, I think it’s integrity. I don’t
think they’re doing a better job than the farm across the street.
But if Sundance is saying our oranges aren’t ready, we’re
not going to sell them yet. If they don’t want to sell them, I
don’t want to buy them. I have a motto: Don’t get in too early
and don’t get out too late. It’s OK to wait a week or two.
It’s OK if there are cherries someplace else a day before they
got to be here.
How do you figure out whether to buy organic or nonorganic produce?
I think where prices are comparable, many members will be happier
with organic; but it’s interesting, sometimes when organic food
simply disappears, like organic grapes, an amazing number of members
buy non-organic grapes. In some cases, if there is a big price difference
and we have enough room, I will carry both organic and nonorganic of
a product. Occasionally there might be a difference in quality in something
that will make people prefer non-organic, for example, non-organic bananas
or non-organic grape tomatoes. There are just people who want them so
we’ll keep getting them, unless the Coop ever decides to buy only
organic. Over 20 percent of the Coop’s produce is still not organic
and people are supporting it.
What is the Coop’s policy on genetically modified (GM) food?
Our goal is to label the food on the shelves. In the produce area,
there is very little that is genetically modified. I don’t think
it’s straight-to-the-table food that is the big deal. It’s
the processed, packaged foods that use GM soy and corn. Even organic
foods, you just don’t know and you have to assume that almost
everything is GM-affected.
What happens with produce that’s going bad that the Coop doesn’t
sell?
Any food that we won’t sell, that’s good enough to eat
but not good enough to buy, is given to a soup kitchen a couple of blocks
away and City Harvest takes the rest. If we don’t think it’s
good enough to eat it goes to the Garden of Union which composts it.
Very little food makes its way into the city dump. It feels really
good
when you can maintain your high standards and not feel like you are
compromising the store when you give something to a food bank because
you are giving them quality food.
To find out more about the Park Slope Food Coop, call 718-622-0560
or visit www.foodcoop.com. The
Coop also offers regular orientation sessions and a variety of classes
on health and food topics that are free and open to the public, as well
as a coffeehouse series of musicians and singers.
