New York—It’s a small place with big ambitions. The 4th Street Food Co-op in Manhattan’s lower east side is still hanging in there six months after the city’s biggest Whole Foods supermarket moved into the neighborhood.
When Whole Foods first opened in the East Village, there was much concern that the co-op would lose members and customers, but after weathering the last six months and still going strong, they trust their loyal and long time supporters even more.
“We can’t compete with Whole Foods, but we have customers who faithfully shop here,” said Geoff Silverman, an old member visiting the store to do a spot of shopping and socializing.
“If you’re a member it’s cheaper than Whole Foods, and they don’t have bin items (bulk) and we do, so we kind of have the edge on them there. With package things they destroy us, because they can buy in huge bulk,” said long time member Robert, working at the cash register.
When they were opening, Whole Foods argued that the Bowery store would help the little guys. “When we came to Union Square, people were concerned about the Greenmarket, but it has grown since we’ve opened,” Whole Foods spokesman Fred Shank told The New York Times. “We created footfall. We see people shopping our store with Greenmarket bags and vice versa.”
The co-op is the only one of its kind in NYC, with many more scattered throughout the state. It’s member owned and not-for-profit, aiming to provide organic, locally produced and grown foods to the community. It is run completely by volunteers, who in turn get discounts. Members work a two and a half hour shift each week, and get a 20 percent discount at the store.
“Buying local, organic, ethically produced food is important to me, but if I were to buy the same weekly basket at a commercial store, I would not be able to afford it,” said Paul Abraham, a Brooklyn College student.
There are a few key things that tend to motivate co-op shoppers to go the extra mile, and they don’t believe any of the commercial stores are able to reliably provide these factors. Buying organic - no chemical pesticides, buying locally produced - to support the local economy and lesson international shipping of goods which ‘leaves footprints’ on the environment, and not supporting what they believe to be non-ethical corporate giants in the food industry, who don’t tend to pay as much attention to quality and the treatment of workers who are producing goods around the world.
30 year old Melissa Guzman runs the private ‘Small Idea Daycare’ on 153rd Street in Harlem, and goes well out of her way to provide her children with as much organic and locally grown produce as possible. She works one evening a week at the Co-op after daycare is closed, and brings back fresh food to cook every week. She says this is the only way she could provide that kind of food quality while keeping her fees reasonably low.
“I try, I still can’t afford to provide all organic for the children, 50 percent of our milk is organic, and bread, but almost 100 percent of the produce I buy them is organic,” said the passionate health advocate.
Guzman, who has two Masters Degrees in education and languages, said she first started working for the co-op when her daughter was one.
“It’s for her, our health, so Kellyn wouldn’t have a corrupted palate from salt and sugar. I wanted her to know that a lot of work goes into food, making it, growing it, and that it makes you thrive. Then I started thinking more about how children eat, especially uptown here, eating processed crisps, the worst of the worst processed foods.”
A Harlem group been trying to open a Food Co-op Supermarket on 145th Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue for over a year according to Guzman, but it still needs a lot more financial support, and prospective members to sign up and chip in.
