Who Gives a Shit?: Has Making Fun of the Coop Jumped the Shark?

Funny I should ask, since I'm pretty sure one of the reasons this blog was created was to poke fun at our beloved Park Slope Food Coop. And, as always, I feel I must preface all my Coop-related posts with the admission that I'm not a Coop member. So now that that's out of the way...

Has the age of Food Coop satirical hilarity passed? Are we tired of making fun of people for having hysterical reactions over artichokes from Israel or hearing about little four-year olds having full-blown meltdowns over dried papaya spears? Do we really care about Adrian Grenier... at all? 

The Atlantic Wire says indeed we have all found greener gluten-free pastures to graze in. Truthfully, I wasn't even giving it a thought but the author of the post called "We've Reached Peak Park Slope Food Coop Mockery" decided to lend voice to the topic. Her muse: the New York Daily News recently ran a little "retrospective" about the establishment that once garnered the attention of the Daily Show. Of course they hit all the high notes: a recent kale shortage, Mr. Grenier getting asked to leave, the conversations over the intercom involving vegan macaroons. Let's not forget the vote to end all votes which ended up not being a vote at all. 

Some other highlights brought to the fore:

It attracts all kinds of Brooklynites - from grungy hipsters to fortyish vegan moms chiding their multiracial children in French as they jostle for locally grown rhubarb. Recently, customers searched for filtered coconut water to prepare for a snowstorm and another was breathlessly seeking chocolate goat's milk.

And:

'People were ready to burn the co-op to the ground,' said one anonymous source who wouldn't reveal his name for fear of being kicked out. 'The intercom went crazy with "Do we have kale!?" "Do we have kale!?" "Someone needs to get fired!" It was doomsday.'

Who cares? Right? I'm starting to agree. We've hit the wall. Nothing you could write could shock us into a hysterical tizzy about picky people food shopping. Park Slopers freaking out at a kale shortage, that checks out. Members bumrushing for coconut water before a snowstorm, yeah sure, why not?

And as the Atlantic Wire post wraps up it aptly quotes a member who says: "Haters gonna hate. Can't make fun properly unless you've done the time." Which is why I write these posts cautiously since I've never set foot in the place, nor do I care to. I make the choice to eat shitty on a daily basis so, as Margaret Cho once said, "where's my parade?" I don't care where my lettuce comes from. You don't see people writing blog posts when my Food Town runs out never has kale.  

The post leaves us waxing philosophical by asking if we "the haters" are crazy for obsessing over how "a bunch of people in Brooklyn do their shopping?" I'll just come and ask again: do we still give a shit?