https://alienware-1.tailb5c716.ts.net/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Issue_2%2FThe_Shopper-Controlled_Shop 2026-11-06T04:20:46Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.42.7 https://alienware-1.tailb5c716.ts.net/index.php?title=Issue_2/The_Shopper-Controlled_Shop&diff=703&oldid=prev 2026-11-03T14:41:48Z

<p>LAN Issue 2, page 13, from the print file</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>[[Issue_2|← Issue 2]]<br /> {{Infobox article<br /> | issue = 2<br /> | section = Parallel Economy<br /> | page = 13<br /> | location = Brooklyn, New York, United States<br /> | date = October 2026<br /> | source = foodcoop.com<br /> }}<br /> <br /> &#039;&#039;Parallel Economy&#039;&#039;<br /> <br /> A parallel economy allows people to provide for each other’s needs autonomously. Brooklyn has had a local version of one for 53 years in the form of a grocery store. The Park Slope Food Coop is a member-owned and operated food store where members contribute labour in exchange for being able to shop. As a cooperative, it is an autonomous association of people joined voluntarily to meet their common social, cultural, and economic needs. In this way, they build trust through cooperation, allowing them to keep prices as low as possible while having access to healthy, nutritious food. In 2024, Joe Holtz, one of the founders, gave the reason it started: “We wanted to be able to afford to eat better food.” He adds that in a country “very much focused on individual success”, they believed it mattered to have some community successes.<br /> <br /> The Park Slope Coop runs on principles common to most cooperatives, which trace back to 1844, when weavers in Rochdale, England, tired of being sold flour cut with chalk, pooled a pound each and opened a shop of their own. In Park Slope the same principles run a store of 16,000 to 17,000 members.<br /> <br /> The rule is that only members may shop there and all of them must contribute their time to keep it operational. Members do about 75% of the work, and the coop’s own survey puts what that saves them at 20 to 40% of a weekly grocery bill. In the year to 1 February 2026, the store had about $63 million in sales and a net income of about $47,000. The coop describes itself as “a buying agent for our members and not a selling agent for any industry”. Decisions are debated and taken at a monthly meeting any member can attend, with one vote each.<br /> <br /> A Circle’s version could start the way this one did, with the added perk of running on onchain rails that could expand the model beyond the hyperlocal.<br /> <br /> &#039;&#039;[https://www.foodcoop.com foodcoop.com]&#039;&#039;<br /> <br /> {{DEFAULTSORT:Shopper-Controlled Shop}}<br /> [[Category:Issue 2]][[Category:Parallel Economy]][[Category:United States]]</div>

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