New York\'s move layers in a biological market in Brooklyn - there are the cheaper foods.

It\'s Monday, 8 clock in the morning Brooklyn. On a normal working day would rise Laurel Madar now in the subway - to Wall Street. She is an economist at the New York Reserve Bank. But this morning, Laurel invites instead crates on a conveyor belt. It\n is easy to work, she says, but as a new member of the \"Park Slope Food \nCoop\" she had to take the first layer that was offered.

\"At\n first I was the fact that I had to work three hours every four weeks, \nfirst quenched. I do not know if I wanted to take me some time. \nMeanwhile, I like the work. I never knew how supermarkets operate. I \nlike it to be a part of the supply chain. \"

Cheap food for members

Laurel Madar and her boyfriend - also a well-earning economists - live in Park Slope, a wealthy district of Brooklyn. Here is the cooperative one institution. Members pay 80 percent of the work in the shop. But they can buy cheaper food: You will pay 30-80 percent less than the normal supermarket. Two-thirds of the members are like Laurel and her fiancé only in recent years came about.

\"Our\n spending on food has become less real. We save money on food and then \nhave more to go eat at a restaurant well. It is the quality of goods is \nmuch higher here than elsewhere, and it tastes even better.\"

Boxes in the basement

One by one, Laurel boxes roll into the basement. There sits the pensioner Mary Agert from Barbados. She and her team are preparing the vegetable crates before they are sold above the store. Mary glued sticker with the word \"organic\" on garlic bulbs. Garlic is healthy, she says. Since all stay away from you, the friends.

Unlike Laurel Madar Agert Mary comes from a poor background. The former cleaning woman lives far away and leaves a half hours by bus and train, abzuleisten to her shift in the cooperative. Only once a week she manages to buy here. Member\n be worthwhile but still... \"I knew for years of the cooperative, but I \nnever had time to participate now that I\'m retired, as that! Food, this \nis a priority for me I like to eat but I could totally I previously never afford organic food, only now and then. Now that I am a member here, it\'s affordable. \"

In normal life, Mary and Laurel would probably have little to do with each other. But here they pull together. \"Will Work for Food\" - Food for Work: It says so on the T-shirts of the cooperative. Their motto is the already since 1973. At that time the cooperative consisted of a small circle of friends and a loan of $ 300. And then the concept was not uncommon in New York. But only the \"Park Slope Food Coop\" stuck. Until 2001, the number of members grew slowly but steadily. But\n since a few years running the new members have a cooperative, the \ndoors, says manager Ann Herschel, one of the few paid staff in the \nsupermarket.

\"Then\n came the economic crisis. We did not at first, in 2008, how we would \naffect that. But in the late summer there is anyway always one swing \nregistrations, 2008, we were completely surprised. Then we began to grow\n to feel right. In September 2008 Lehman\n Brothers got into the crisis, Bear Stearns had already fallen. We had \nso many new members nachkamen the winter of 2008/2009, that we are not \nprocessing the requests. \"

More members than residents in a small town

16,000 members, the association has already - more than many small town residents. Above the shop does it manifest itself. It\'s\n crowded, people are lining up to get hold of fresh vegetables from the \nsurrounding farms and cheeses from around the world - even on a Monday \nmorning. All cultures of the city are represented: young and old, rich and poor, singles and families with children. Anyone looking for something and can not find calls through the speakers. Anyone who wants to buy here, it must scan their membership card at the door. A computer shows that all layers are processed. If you miss one layer, must make up for penalty two. Not\n all are happy about the strict rules: regularly published articles in \nlocal newspapers - even in The New York Times - that report by \ndisgruntled members.

\"Yes,\n sometimes I feel like the police, but I think we only pay attention to \nthe community. Everyone here has something invested, and it is expected \nsomething in return from the community. If some of the bypass system, \nthey devalue the work the other. The yes, no one wants that feels not so good. \"

Matt Lindsey has his shift just behind him. For two hours and 45 minutes of professional musicians today conceded early on the freezer shelves. Now he stands with his wagon full of vegetables at the checkout. But he enthuses. But not only is different in the cooperative.

\"It\'s\n different here than in a normal supermarket, because everyone works. \nWhen I see something on the ground that belongs on the shelf, then I \nclean it away. I know where it belongs. In the normal supermarket would \nnot happen .\n The members are active and they also buy a lot of confidence. I have \nnow eliminated a truck, I have dealt with milk and eggs. And so I have a\n stronger bond with my own food than before. \"

$ 40 million in sales

\'Communists Pack \"members of the cooperative by outsiders to be insulted. But Ann Herschel rejects the alleged accusation. 40 million U.S. dollars in sales has made the store last year. .\n Ann says there is only one difference between the bankers on Wall \nStreet and the concept of cooperative: \"We earn money yes, we are not \nagainst capitalism, we only earn it another way - namely, for the \ncommunity. It\n benefits no one of them, but 16,000 people will benefit. You get good \nfood at reasonable prices. Capitalism works, but you can indeed do \ndifferently. It does not have a group of shareholders give the money \nearned at the whole work. We have the concept placed on the head - everyone benefited financially from the work of all. \"

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