Downtown Cooperative - CLOSED

[propscene]

Yay! 

[MCA™]

It looks like the backers of the real co-op have won.

http://docomarketcafe.com/
https://twitter.com/docomarketcafe

"EAT WELL. CONNECT. EVOLVE. @DOCOMARKETCAFE bringing organic, locally sourced, fairly traded foods to the Jersey City DOwntown COmmunity."

[MCA™]

So we all know the Downtown Faux-op's been "closed for renovation" for a few months now.

Today, Paul Silverman posted on his Facebook wall, along with a pic: "Marcela and Tim sign to take over and reopen the Downtown Coop at Hamilton Square, Jersey City. Watch for opening next month!"

[jehu]

Is this all you can do, think of yourself and not the poor residents of Hamilton Park. This is one less tree for people to have their dogs piss on!!! There is going to be a riot I tell you!!!

and another tree bites the dust and most likely will not be replaced like when the moving van took out the trees on 5th across the street from Cafe La Rustique   

[shahaggy]

and another tree bites the dust and most likely will not be replaced like when the moving van took out the trees on 5th across the street from Cafe La Rustique   

[CeeDub]

Garsh!!  That's signed for Tuesday/Friday street cleaning, 1 to 3 PM . . .

Judging by the root ball (or lack thereof), the (late) tree looks none too healthy.  Hurtle?  What say you?

[MCA™]

D'OH!


Truck clips tree limb in Jersey City, sending tree crashing onto two churchgoers' cars
Published: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 1:59 PM
Updated: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 2:13 PM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal


Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

A tractor trailer carrying organic foods to a Jersey City co-op this afternoon clipped the limb of a tree on Ninth Street near Hamilton Park, ripping the tree out of the ground and sending it crashing on to two cars.

The cars were unoccupied at the time of the crash, and no one appeared to be injured, according to witnesses.

The tree also took down an electrical wire, cutting power to nearby St. Michael's Church of St. Jude and the rectory, according to PSE&G workers on the scene.

Witnesses said the truck did not appear to be speeding, though most said they heard the accident and did not see it. Jesse Wolf, the truck driver, said it happened after he turned onto Ninth Street from Jersey Avenue.

"Made the turn, straightened out and as soon as I straightened out -- boom!" said Wolf, 30.

Maria Desmond of Rutherford owns the red 2009 Cadillac that was damaged when the tree fell. Desmond said she was in St. Michael's with her sister when the crash occurred.

"And this is what I found when I came out," she said.

The woman who owned the white car that appeared heavily damaged was also in St. Michael's at the time of the crash.

Randolph resident Nick Adams, a dog walker, was in the park walking a Siberian husky and a dachshund when he heard the tree fall on the cars.

"It was something else," Adams said. "It was kind of cool to watch."

[TheFang]

Downtown Coop stocks mostly local products, like fish from the Fulton Fish Market and beef from cows raised in New Jersey.

I know I shouldn't expect more out of the JJ, but just because fish is bought from the Fulton Market does not mean it is local, just that it was bought through a local distributor. Fish from all over the world go through that market.

[MCA™]

Downtown Jersey City food coop caters to virtually everyone
Published: Tuesday, February 01, 2011, 10:50 PM
Updated: Tuesday, February 01, 2011, 10:53 PM
Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Mary Suliburk, owner of the new Downtown Coop on McWilliams Place in Jersey City, installed a chalkboard in the back of the store to allow customers to request certain items.

Suliburk said she thought she'd get a few requests for local produce, but the chalkboard is filled top to bottom with demands for all sorts of food goods, from black radishes to havarti to kimchi.

"Every time I get this thing knocked down, it fills up again," she said.

Suliburk, who opened the Coop in late December with her husband David, said the couple wants to run a business that had the features of both a traditional coop and a normal grocery store.

Though some coops sell only to members, Downtown Coop welcomes everyone. And while traditional coops are owned and operated by members, Downtown Coop members pay $100 annually and agree to volunteer at the store one hour per month, in exchange for a discount on items.

"It had to be quirky and different, like Jersey City," she said.

Downtown Coop stocks mostly local products, like fish from the Fulton Fish Market and beef from cows raised in New Jersey. Suliburk said she and her husband, both originally from Oklahoma, try to feature local or Northeastern foods when possible.

The clientele reflects Jersey City, Suliburk said, ranging from parents with families to single men to couples.

"We want it to be accessible to every socioeconomic group," she said.

[MCA™]

The sentence in question has been revised in response to a commenter. It now reads:

"But Downtown Coop breaks with that formula, differing from worker cooperative grocery stores, like the Jersey City Food Co-op. The Downtown Coop instead is more of a hybrid business, taking parts of the co-op model — like membership and some democratic participation — and merging them with parts of the traditional for-profit grocery store model."

Downtown Coop breaks with that formula, differing from other cooperative grocery stores by being a for profit business where you can pay them for the pleasure of working there. 

If any of this is inaccurate feel free to ask the moderators to delete my post.  It worked before.  Drop "coop" from the name and you'll never hear me say another word against the place.

Slainte.

[MCA™]

I peeked in the store today while on my morning walk, before it opened. I have to say the selection was thin – 4 aisles of packaged food and groceries, 1 row of produce and about 15 feet of glass-fronted refrigerator/freezer space. Not too inviting, I must say.

[Soshin]

Downtown Coop breaks with that formula, differing from other cooperative grocery stores by being a for profit business where you can pay them for the pleasure of working there. 

If any of this is inaccurate feel free to ask the moderators to delete my post.  It worked before.  Drop "coop" from the name and you'll never hear me say another word against the place.

Slainte.

[PuddinPop]

From today's Jersey City Independent: Downtown Coop Officially Opens its Doors

"But Downtown Coop breaks with that formula, differing from other cooperative grocery stores — like the Jersey City Food Co-op — by offering a varying degrees of involvement for members and by being open to non-members as well."

[MCA™]

Posting in this thread as opposed to the Jersey City Food Coop one as this is where the debate is raging.


Two New Grocery Options Aim to Corner the Co-op Market in Jersey City
By Amy Petriello • Sep 24th, 2010 • Category: Food, Lead Story

Red House Roasters’ Jersey Devil coffee. Cocoa Bakery’s honey black pepper truffles. Schripps’ five-grain pullman bread. All of these products are Hudson County-made but, until now, impossible to find in one place in Jersey City. Two stores on the horizon will change that. And both are co-ops.

Traditionally, co-op food stores are collectively owned operations whose members pay a fee to join and in return have a say in how the store is run and what goods — usually local, natural, organic, or some combination of the three — are carried. But of Jersey City’s two upcoming stores, only one sticks to that definition, with the other arguing that it is too rigid a formulation for the harried life of today’s urbanites. While the two co-ops may disagree on that crucial point, they are both working towards the same goal of bringing more food-shopping options to the city.

The Jersey City Food Coop Initiative (JCFC), which is still in its planning stages, follows the International Cooperative Alliance’s (ICA) seven principles of cooperative business, which include democratic member control, member economic participation, and education and concern for the community.

The JCFC, which is the brainchild of organizers like Gillian Allen, believes that all co-ops should follow these rules — “without question,” the JCFC’s board of trustees tells us (they chose to answer questions collectively rather than individually). They quote the ICA’s Statement of Cooperative Identity as a guiding principle.

“The cooperative principles are guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice,” it reads. “Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.”

For JCFC, part of that equity is sweat-based. To belong to the co-op and get access to discounted, quality food, you have to put in time working at the store or events. But it can be tough in the midst of this recession, when jobs are requiring longer and longer working hours, to find time to volunteer.

Enter Downtown Coop, which plans to open November 1 on the ground floor of the Hamilton Square development on Hamilton Park. Its business model breaks with the traditional definition of a co-op, with additional monetary investment replacing volunteer work. Downtown offers working memberships; individuals who want a non-working one simply pay more to have a stake in the store.

[snip]

SO WHICH CO-OP IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Jersey City Food Coop
Who can join: Anyone who accepts the terms of membership
Cost: To be determined
Time commitment: To be determined
Location: To be determined
What they’ll carry: Seasonal fruits and vegetables, grass-fed and hormone-free meats, eggs, breads, herbs & teas, coffee, household and beauty products
Opening date: Approximately September 2011, with a buying club to start in October 2010
Can you shop without joining? No
You should join if …: You want to be 100 percent invested and involved in your grocery store.

Downtown Coop
Who can join: All adults over the age of 18, either as a household or as individuals. A household is two or more adults living under the same roof who share all or some domestic responsibility
Cost: $100 for a one-time Member Investment; non-working members also pay an extra $50 annually.
Time commitment: 1 hour per month for a working member; households may be required to work more hours.
Location: Hamilton Square condominiums, 9th Street & McWilliams Place
What they’ll carry: Local (when possible), natural, fair-trade, and organic foods, including produce, meat, cheese, milk, bread, dry goods, and basic shopping needs
Opening date: November 1, 2010
Can you shop without joining? Yes, but you won’t receive the member discount.
You should join if …: You want to shop at a co-op without working at one.

[propscene]

"While some residents have criticized them for calling the store a cooperative but not requiring customers to become members, David Suliburk said there are numerous models for cooperatives. This one, he said, will not operate along the lines of the well known Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, which requires members to volunteer at the store every month."

Yeah Jersey Urinal, that's exactly the issue here.

[CeeDub]

"In a move debated as market prescient or shoegazingly stupid, bloggers who write about the co-opt will be asked to send $15 per entry to the store's PayPhall account."

[TMN]

originally from Okrahoma,

There. Fixed.

[TheFang]

Wait, I know I'm not supposed to say anything, but they're going to be charging the vendors? How does that even make sense or work? Not even in like "co-op" terms, but in general running a store terms. Weird.

[jehu]

haha! I was wondering if they were going to charge the vendors for bringing in their wares!! That is just great! 

[MCA™]

Jersey City couple are planning October opening for the Downtown Coop, with high-quality and organic food produced close by
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
By MELISSA HAYES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Mary and David Suliburk are big fans of organically grown food. But this Jersey City couple also believes in protecting the environment, which means they aren't interested in buying a perfectly grown tomato if it has to be trucked in from California.

But finding affordable, high-quality, sustainable products in local supermarkets has proved a big challenge for this couple and several of their friends. So the Suliburks have come up with a radical solution: They're starting their own store, the Downtown Coop, with an October opening planned.

"It's really about supporting individual farmers and supporting a healthy lifestyle by having access to these foods," Mary Suliburk said. The co-op will be housed at the Hamilton Square Condominiums in Downtown.

Mary Suliburk will run the day-to-day business, while husband David, who also has an IT job, will manage the website and other aspects. The couple, who live in the Hamilton Park neighborhood and are originally from Oklahoma, come from families with a history of farming.

While some residents have criticized them for calling the store a cooperative but not requiring customers to become members, David Suliburk said there are numerous models for cooperatives. This one, he said, will not operate along the lines of the well known Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, which requires members to volunteer at the store every month.

Farmers and businesses that have items in the store will buy into the co-op for a nominal fee, he said. Customers who want to become members can join for $100 a year. The membership comes with a discount on store merchandise and invitations to events like farm tours and lessons on pickling or canning produce. "It's really simple, you have a group of people who support a group of producers," David Suliburk said.

Mary Suliburk said she will be able to tell everyone where each product came from and how it was delivered, whether it's a tomato trucked from a farm in New Jersey, turkeys from Pennsylvania or organic products sent from a wholesale retailer.

For additional information visit downtowncoop.com.

[Pinky]

oh Really . . .

[CeeDub]

Thank god that post is still here and doesn't have to be rewritten!
A moment of silence for all the great posts that were lost AtS.

No more than a moment- for Muche of whate wast Wrytten were Notte Lost, but rather Murder'd, moste foully by the eveil Phall-con.

[Binky]

Thank god that post is still here and doesn't have to be rewritten!
A moment of silence for all the great posts that were lost AtS.

[CeeDub]

oh Really . . .

[Pinky]

There is only one person capable of that post..... Ich tip meinen Hut vor Ihnen, Herr