Hyde Park Co-op board votes to shut grocery

It's about time. The Co-op has been living on empty promises that they are going to improve for more than ten years. Hope it is Treasure Island

I remember their mint chocolate chip cookies from the 1960's. My grandchildren loved them. I will miss that old place.

I used to have to shop at this store. It was usually a pretty bad experience, and the only way to get any discounts was to pay a fee and come at a certain time of the week that everyone else was there. Also, VERY EXPENSIVE

I loved shopping there. It was always quite convient for me and the prices, at least when I lived in Hyde Park, where quite reasonable.

Your video is pretty one sided. It sounds like you just polled people who like the store. Most people I speak with about the closing are happy about it. In Hyde Park if you want fresh, good, inexpensive produce you go to Hyde Park Produce (or to the Farmer's Market in Harper Court in the summer through fall months). The Co-op is expensive, and the quality of food is questionable at best. Loitering is a problem too. The comment about a Dominick's not being able to cater to the neighborhood is also bunk--the store does a great job of catering to the neighborhood in which its located. I think a lot of people have waited for this for a long time.

Hooray! I might even consider moving back to Hyde Park now that the Food Nazis have closed down.

Where did you find people that liked the Co-Op? Never in my twelve years of living in that neighborhood did I ever hear anyone say they liked that store. The rest of us have been sending up prayers that it close for years now.

Poor socialists, yet another reminder that socialism does not work in either theory or practice. That must be a bitter pill.

I lived in Hyde Park for 4 years (2002 to 2006) and although I supported the noble intentions of the Co-Op, the reality was far different. Exorbitant prices, shortages, poor quality perishables, long lines, and antiquated checkout equipment were the norm. Near the end of its life, the Co-Op had become such an unpleasant store that many Hyde Parkers were doing their grocery shopping at CVS. I'm hoping for Treasure Island to fill the space; they're a local business with a progressive outlook that should do very well in Hyde Park.

Reminded me of the good old days of shopping in the failed USSR...."WE" decide what YOU will like and have when "WE" get around to doing something since "WE" know best.

Yeah, it's a "supermarket with a conscience." Unfortunately, what it didn't have was good food or good management.

In any other environment the Co-op would have gone out of business and been replaced years ago. Why the free-market economists of the University of Chicago have let this travesty continue this long is beyond me.

I would feel bad about this if the customer service weren't atrocious and if they hadn't stopped stocking all of the specialty items they used to have.

PLEASE let it be a Dominick's. I have heard bad things about Treasure Island's food quality - plus it's expensive. If it's TI, I'll be back shopping on Roosevelt Road again.

The Coop is the poster child for Hyde Park's biggest problem: the triumph of dogmatism over pragmatism. People kept the coop on life support for years because "its heart is in the right place".

Sure, but what about all the gas burned by people who can't get cheap, fresh food there and have to go up to Roosevelt Road? What about the people who can't afford to go elsewhere and can least afford the expensive prices for subpar goods?

And it's the same all over Hyde Park. Why can't a woman walk down 53rd St without getting harassed? Those kids are just high-spirited/misunderstood/wh atever. Why do people get robbed at gunpoint during the day (last example: Friday at 9am on the Midway)? Well, we don't want a police state.

All that garbage is why I left Hyde Park: because so many hippie-dippy locals don't understand the continuum from police state to lawless, are guided by ideals without considering the effects of their actions, and keep telling themselves "it's like this all over Chicago; that's city life."

No it is not city life, it is bad behavior. Good riddance to the Coop; glad to see the new art center, new cafes, and a new restaurant on 53rd; and, maybe (someday) students and other residents will stop getting shot while going about their business.

First, the Hyde Park Co-op for years and years hired and retained rude and lacadaisical check out staff that drove me and thousands of others out of the neighborhood to shop. The management was either too incompetent or indifferent to notice or care. Second, long lines rarely stimulated management to open additional registers for the same reasons. Thirdly, management actively worked to keep other grocery stores from moving in, putting its own interests far ahead of the interests of the community it so sancitmoniously professed to serve . In conclusion: management and staff ought to reflect upon the truth that faces all businesses not subsidized by a university: treat your thousands of customers badly and sooner or later you are going to have to look for another job,

Well, not many factory workers could afford to shop at the Co-op today. It's expensive as hell.

Place bricks on the roof during a heavy snow storm. Dumpster full of volitale liquids is also a good source. Damn kids....

Hyde Parker wrote:

First, the Hyde Park Co-op for years and years hired and retained rude and lacadaisical check out staff that drove me and thousands of others out of the neighborhood to shop. The management was either too incompetent or indifferent to notice or care. Second, long lines rarely stimulated management to open additional registers for the same reasons. Thirdly, management actively worked to keep other grocery stores from moving in, putting its own interests far ahead of the interests of the community it so sancitmoniously professed to serve . In conclusion: management and staff ought to reflect upon the truth that faces all businesses not subsidized by a university: treat your thousands of customers badly and sooner or later you are going to have to look for another job,

"This place is a supermarket with a conscience," said DesJardins, who has shopped at the store for 51 years and is a shareholder in the co-op.

I am also a shareholder and I must say that the way one expresses a 'conscience' as a supermarket is to serve the community AS A SUPERMARKET---which is what the Co-op has failed to do for the past decade or more. We have a lovely neighborhood club to host book sales, garden sales, and all of the other things that the Co-op seemed to think were more important than actually selling groceries. Bring on an interesting, progressive store like Treasure Island that realizes that being good at selling groceries is a community service.

With luck, the Coop's closing will also let a Dominick's, Jewel, or whatever finally move in to the 47th St location. Imagine that: TWO big grocery stores for Hyde Park and Kenwood shoppers! The HP Herald would have no choice but to promptly run a story on how competition will ruin Hyde Park.

I'm so glad I asked for my membership stake back a few years ago. Since it took a *year* to get my $30, I can only guess what juggling they were doing to maintain any cashflow.

The only reason the CoOp has survived this long is simply because there is no half decent competitor within 7 miles of it. If they put in a dominicks at the 47th street store or anywhere near the CoOp, it would have sunk faster than the titanic.

All these member that want to save the CoOp- where were you when your decisions pushed the store towards bankruptcy? Seriously, signing a 23 year lease at 1 million a year without an escape clause?- when you are just MAKING 1 million a year??? You could have at least consulted with a U of C econ proffesor for free I'm sure- the students would have told you that was dumb.

I for one am ecstatic something else is opening, and if it comes at the expense of the CoOp, well thats just an added Christmas bonus!

The only reason the members were concerned about the closing was because they think the current Coop workers would lose their jobs. Who is to say they would not get rehired by the "high quality" store and actually receive good benefits?

I'm from Hyde Park, but not the least bit upset about the Co-Op closing. It was never that great. The place was poorly lit and poorly staffed. Hope the old neighborhood gets a real grocery store. A Trader Joe's would be great.

Thank god. The Co-op has been floundering with poor quality, bad service and high prices. It is a positive thing for this community; make no mistake.

I am surprised there aren't violins playing in the background on that video. B.S.!

Aye.... good BYE!.