health food/natural food stores: politics & caricatures
although i do not work in a healthfood store, i must say i've been much entertained by dairryiere's recent parody on healthfood store customer stereotypes.
speaking of such stores, there is some serious shit going down at my local co-op although i know very little about the details (although i just found this online memo of the board's perspective on the matters). everytime i shop there i ask someone about what's going on, who they recommend for the upcoming board elections. they always say something about "the future of the co-op" being at stake and tend to be split along manager/worker lines (the management has a few staff-allies but otherwise the split seems pretty clear). the staff will generally say "the future of the co-op as a democratic institution" is at stake and the manager i talked to said "the future of to co-op as a financially viable business and my job are at stake". both sides say that this is not an area where there will be some happy compromise... that there will, like it or not, be very clear winners and losers.
madison market is really the only remaining co-op in seattle as PCC became essentially a corporate entity years ago (essentially as much of a co-op as REI is). although not a worker-owned co-op, at least they are unionized and do, in theory, run with a lot of member input & following certain co-op principles of community involvement & sustainability... and that's the reason we shop there instead of apolitical/yuppified PCC or pricey Wholefoods or cut-throat-cheap Trader Joe's & Safeway (I think Safeway finally unionized but Trader Joe's has not and the checkers I chat with there grumble about crappy pay and terrible benefits). While we can afford it, it's also why we're willing to fork out more money for the higher costs at the co-op (not higher than PCC or Wholefoods)... because we recognize that cheaper prices DO come at someone else's expense. my sister & i are supposed to get together with one of the stocker boys sometime soon to get the lowdown and share info with fellow co-op members.
speaking of such stores, there is some serious shit going down at my local co-op although i know very little about the details (although i just found this online memo of the board's perspective on the matters). everytime i shop there i ask someone about what's going on, who they recommend for the upcoming board elections. they always say something about "the future of the co-op" being at stake and tend to be split along manager/worker lines (the management has a few staff-allies but otherwise the split seems pretty clear). the staff will generally say "the future of the co-op as a democratic institution" is at stake and the manager i talked to said "the future of to co-op as a financially viable business and my job are at stake". both sides say that this is not an area where there will be some happy compromise... that there will, like it or not, be very clear winners and losers.
madison market is really the only remaining co-op in seattle as PCC became essentially a corporate entity years ago (essentially as much of a co-op as REI is). although not a worker-owned co-op, at least they are unionized and do, in theory, run with a lot of member input & following certain co-op principles of community involvement & sustainability... and that's the reason we shop there instead of apolitical/yuppified PCC or pricey Wholefoods or cut-throat-cheap Trader Joe's & Safeway (I think Safeway finally unionized but Trader Joe's has not and the checkers I chat with there grumble about crappy pay and terrible benefits). While we can afford it, it's also why we're willing to fork out more money for the higher costs at the co-op (not higher than PCC or Wholefoods)... because we recognize that cheaper prices DO come at someone else's expense. my sister & i are supposed to get together with one of the stocker boys sometime soon to get the lowdown and share info with fellow co-op members.