Why I can’t go to a normal supermarket anymore..
Today, a slightly different blog, but I guess you might be interested… it does have to do with music, I promise.
If you know me, I talk about my supermarket often. And that’s because it’s not really just another supermarket. See, where I live in Brooklyn, the Park Slope Food Coop is an institution – a community and ‘food-safe-haven’ for all members.
Members? You have to be a member of a supermarket? Alright, let me explain.
A little history...
In 1975, A bunch of people in Brooklyn (the neighborhood of Park Slope to be exact) where struggling to find healthy produce in the city. The fresh stuff that came in, was overpriced or headed straight to the restaurants. Illogical and unfair, these people thought. ‘We are in one of the largest and most important cities on earth. We are close to upstate New York, with an enormous amount of farmers growing an even bigger variety of produce, and yet, we struggle to find a cheap and good lettuce where we live.”
And so, these folks had the grandiose idea to all chip in, and buy a crate of lettuce directly from the farmer upstate and drive to the city. Provided, they needed a place to store the crate, and they quickly decided that they would all sweep the floor of that place, and probably chip in a little more for every crate bought (about 25% margin) to make sure the heat and the lights stay on in that storage. These ‘founding fathers and mothers’ were the first ‘members’ of this food cooperation.
Fast forward 50 years later, and this group of lettuce loving people are a community of 17,000 members that all love to shop at their own supermarket. They ‘invest’ $100 when they become a member and pledge to ‘sweep the floor of the storage’, which is now a system of shift every member has to work. So do have to work part time to just shop at a supermarket? Well, you can imagine that with 17,000 members working at one supermarket, it’s hardly a part time job. Every six weeks, you have to do your part of a shift of 2 hours and 45 minutes and you can choose to either operate the register, cut cheese, restock the shelves, put the boxes of food away, manage rebait of bottles and cans, and yes, sweep the floors. The funny thing is: everybody needs to do it, so all members are in the same boat. When you pay for your groceries, you both know how the registry works and how to scan. When a shelf is empty, you ring down and ask if there’s some left in the basement. The members are doctors, chefs, writers, publicists, and even musicians (C’est moi).
The food is still bought collectively and sold with that 25% margin, so we can keep the lights on and pay for the overhead cost. Seventeen thousand members who shop at one supermarket, also means that the stocked food also gets sold quickly. And that means that ‘we’ have to restock once, sometimes twice a day. The carrot, lettuce and potato you buy is always fresh. It also means that the produce is very seasonal, because ‘we’ buy local produce every day.
It is not uncommon that during mushroom season, you could be treated to a wall of more than 20 different kinds of mushrooms, including morels, blackfoot and chanterelles. The fresh produce has made my life in New York a lot better, and that’s the reason why I can’t go anywhere else. And, they also have some of the Original Beans chocolate flavors that Teddy works with. See here the chocolate selection!
My coop 'work' shift
My shift? I don’t know why exactly, but Teddy and I choose to do the shift of 5.30AM in the basement, putting boxes of fresh produce away. It is not exactly glamorous, but since that shift ends at 8.15AM, all the people there are trying to get a shift in before they head of to work.
I always have nice conversations with new, interesting people from all walks of life, and we are always with plenty of people doing the heavy lifting, so it isn’t remotely as brutal as it sounds.
Another shift I love to do (and can you blame me?) is doing a concert at the PSFC concert series. These concert series are organized by one of the members and takes place in a rather legendary venue, across the street from the Food Coop, called ‘Shapeshifter’.
I’ve done one in the past, and since we’re on the subject, I will do a show during the concert series on January 9th of 2026, so if you are in the city, please stop by! You can find more info here. The Park Slope Food Coop is a great equalizer. In a city where everyone is hustling, it’s grounding to show up and do something ordinary and shared. Every six weeks I put boxes away at 5:30 AM, and later that day I might be teaching, writing, or making music. Same person, same community. Somehow, my New York life got better, just because I joined a supermarket.
Coop Concert Series
Another shift I love to do (and can you blame me?) is doing a concert at the PSFC concert series. These concert series are organized by one of the members and takes place in a rather legendary venue, across the street from the Food Coop, called ‘Shapeshifter’.
I’ve done one in the past, and since we’re on the subject, I will do a show during the concert series on January 9th of 2026, so if you are in the city, please stop by! You can find more info here. The Park Slope Food Coop is a great equalizer. In a city where everyone is hustling, it’s grounding to show up and do something ordinary and shared. Every six weeks I put boxes away at 5:30 AM, and later that day I might be teaching, writing, or making music. Same person, same community. Somehow, my New York life got better, just because I joined a supermarket.
Hope to see you on January 9th! Click for tickets and info.
