The People's Grocery
“Since its opening in the 70s, the Park Slope Food Co-Op has managed to survive skyrocketing rents, waves of hipster transplants, and the unrelenting demands of American capitalism. Their secret? Socialism.”
By Laila Azmy
What do we, as humans, owe to each other? What do each of us humans deserve? I examine these big questions through the vacuum of my local socialist haven: The Park Slope Food Co-Op. This controversial institution promotes equity of food access through low prices, prices which are made possible through rigid work requirements of their customers. The Co-Op shows socialism works, at least on a tiny, grocery-store scale. But does the affluent Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope deserve to reap any of these benefits?
Laila Azmy is a senior at Millennium Brooklyn High School. She enjoys iced coffee, true crime documentaries, and grassroots activism.
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