Park Slope Food Coop Nannygate: Part Deux

So the New York Times picked up our little ole story last week about nannies working Coop shifts for their employers.

They had a lot of interesting things to say, but obvz this was our fave line: "The posting on the blog, which goes by a name that cannot be printed in this newspaper..."

OH, and this one: "The post had the deliciousness of a Candace Bushnell novel, or maybe, for connoisseurs of locavore fiction, an Amy Sohn novel."

WHATTUP, AMY SOHN!? HOLLA, CANDACE BUSHNELL!

Click to read more ...

Park Slope Food Coop Killer?: Wholeshare

photo via Park Slope Lens

Have you been suspended at the Coop? At a loss for where to get your organic fruitz, but too lazy to go do your 12 make-up shifts?

BOOM!

Behold: Wholeshare.

I'm semi-banking on this shit as the Park Slope Food Coop killer.

Wholeshare allows groups of users to join together to pool their orders to purchase from local farmers who only sell in bulk. Then all y'all save up to 20-30% on everything that you buy. It's like a virtual Park Slope Food Coop! But with way the hell fewer rules!

You can form groups however you want: with your neighbors, your co-workers, or your home birthing class friends. Everyone gets an account, fills up their cart, and then when you reach the minimum group requirement for purchase, your shit gets sent to one address. You can even "split" orders. So if you wanna buy cheddar cheese, for example, but the farm that's selling it only sells it in a 10 pound quanitity: don't worry! You don't have to get THAT fat! You can just click on the split button on your cart and then the rest of your group gets some email that's like: "hey, I don't want to get super fat, so I'm only buying 1 lb of cheddar...anyone else wanna split the rest with me?" Then the item only gets officially added to your cart if the rest of your group members step up to the plate and order enough to meet the minimum requirement of all of you getting fat.

Once you form a group, you can post to your group page, send messages back and forth, and see all your past orders.

Ok, truth time: I *did* request an account today so that I could see what this was all about, and they're not quite in our area yet. BUT THEY ARE COMING.

So, stay tuned for the scoop on the FIPS NO BABIES ALLOWED Wholeshare group. Orange vests will totes be optional.

(via Mashable)

COOL OR NOT COOL: Having Your Nanny Do Your Coop Shift??

photo via Park Slope Lens

Ok, so this totally comes from downtown rumor-ville as:

a. it's second hand knowledge; and
b. I don't even belong to the Park Slope Food Coop, so I have no fucking idea how it works.

Howevz.

One of my BREEDER friends has a new babysitter who works a few days for another family in Park Slope. And she hangs with their nanny, who hangs with all of the other neighborhood nannies. And apparently, there's this big dirty little secret amongst the Park Slope Gliterati: many of the well-to-do families in the area who have full-time help, routinely send their nannies and/or their housekeepers to do their Coop shifts.

Click to read more ...

Walmart vs. Brooklyn: Joe Holtz Votes for Shop Rite

Wow, I can't believe I actually just watched the live webcast of the City Council Walmart hearing concerning whehter or not they should be allowed to come to  and it was RIVETING. I mean it. It was some really entertaining reality TV. Way better than Erica's beloved Real Housewives.

There was the rabid republican 9/11 union construction worker who played both the 9/11 *and* the Muslim cards in his efforts to sing the praises of Walmart. There were the dudes from the hood who had gone on a Walmart-paid fact-finding mission in Arkansas, and came home saying Walmart is promising to hire all the ex-cons in Brownsville AND send them all to college. And if they don't, TROUBLE, big trouble, "25 to life" kind of trouble. You feelin' me? There was the awesome husband/wife team of city councilman and assembly woman who both spoke eloquently,smartly and specifically against Walmart. And also they called each other "sweetheart" and "love of my life" and shit. 

Click to read more ...

Who Gives A Shit: Is The Park Slope Food Coop Worth It?

image via @SdiddyBKLYNOh man. While blogging mostly sucks a dizzle, sometimes the universe just drops a jucy little somethin somethin into your lap as if to say: YOU CAN DO IT. DON'T GIVE UP, OLD BLOGGER, OLD PAL! EVERYTHING IS GONNA BE OK!

And this Brooklynian thread is exactly wtf I'm talking about.

Some Park Slope newb is just wondering: is it worth it to join the Park Slope Food Coop??

And while I loved the shit outta all the responses and found a link to a fucking treasure trove of old Coop rants that could keep me busy for days, this is the first time I've ever seen a mathematical formula developed that will tell you once and for all whether or not it's worth your time to join to Food Coop.

I, for one, take a time value of money perspective. The value of my free time (in this case, the value of doing something other than a coop shift) is more valuable to me than the value the coop presents in terms of sense of community, locally sourced high quality food and attractive prices (there might be others) less the hassle factor. The hassle factor includes the things commonly mentioned by coop members as being drawbacks such as the high traffic during peak shopping times, keeping up with shifts, dealing with an unprofessional volunteer staff (again - there may be others).

If you can quantify the variables I've mentioned, you can create a formula. Where T(v) = Time value, B = value you place on the benefits, and H = value you place on the hassles. If T(v) is greater than B-H, then you should not join.

Hats off to Brooklynian commenter Jamzer for that one. While I switched my college major to avoid a math requirement, this is the kind of math problem I can't get behind.