Nothing like a good pointless controversy to get me blogging again...

Subtitle: A scathing review of the Community Helpings co-op
Sub-subtitle: I don't give a shit what others think, I'm entitled to my opinions


So I got into it the other day on FB (yes, I know that arguing on Facebook is completely pointless, sometimes I can't help it) with some organizers of the community helpings co-op groups in my area. I shall henceforth refer to the co-op as CHC for my own sanity. Anyway, a dear friend of mine is a group organizer and she posted something benign about the chaos of the day-after a co-op delivery. I posted that I felt equally unenamoured with it despite my lack of administrative duties. I've been pretty vocal about CHC. I'm not ashamed about that. In my view it's a product that I am paying money for. I have expectations of how transactions should go just as I do at Target or the pizza joint around the corner. If your customer service is crappy or your product isn't as you've advertised it, you're going to hear about it. It's an aspect of my personality that sometimes gets me into trouble. I also occasionally feel guilty because I take my frustration out on the wrong folks. I try to remember that these individuals are just people. This is a conundrum when you're also dealing with corporations or large groups of people.

My beef with the CHC is that I think they're full of rainbow farts and warm fuzzies. At the same time they are significantly lacking in delivery of the product they advertise. From here on in this is going to be a bit stream of consciousness. Stick with me. As with most social elements of our lives, this is a bit complicated.

The draw of the co-op, as advertised on their website, is first quality vegetables and fruit at rock bottom prices. Sounds great yeah? I thought so too. Some friends of mine were participating in the co-op and talked me into giving it a try. Who doesn't want higher quality for less money? My first order was less than impressive. In fact, I was pretty irritated. Sure, the produce was cheap, but it was also CHEAP. The apples were bruised, the onions had obviously been frozen and rotted within days, the potatoes were slimy and actually growing mold. I could smell those the minute I walked into my kitchen on delivery night. Rotten potatoes are unmistakable. One head of cabbage was the size of a softball, the other was what I'd expect from cabbage. Nothing was really stellar in quality, and much of it was less than acceptable. I bitched and I moaned and I eventually came around to trying one more time. Again there were some iffy quality issues but overall the second delivery wasn't as bad as the first. I did the math and figured that what I got in the "basket" was worth what I paid, with the added value of not having to traipse through the store. The 3rd deliver came around and again I was underwhelmed. There were the expected bruised apples, the pineapple that went bad the second day, the limes I have no idea how to use up, but again the value of my baskets was adequate.

By the time the most recent delivery rolled around I was sick of hearing about how absolutely amazingly wonderful this co-op was. I couldn't be the only person who was getting blah results. I figured the reason I wasn't hearing about the downfalls was due to nobody wanting to rock the fuzzy-wuzzy feel-good boat. It was on that friend's post that I simply said "I'm not so sure it's cheaper, or worth the effort". I didn't say anything inflammatory. I didn't say "the founders are high on crack if they think this is awesome". I didn't say anything of the sort, only "I'm not so sure it's been worth it for me". It was honest. Little did I know what would result.

Whether by miscommunication, or simply because I touched a nerve on someone's bad day, it doesn't really matter. The result of that comment on my friend's personal Facebook page was epic. You'd have thought I told somebody they had an ugly baby.

After squaring things with my friend (sorry, didn't mean to cause drama) I was able to look at the experience from a different perspective and I came to several realizations.

1. There are 2 kinds of people who join co-ops. There are those who view the co-op as a social vehicle. They feel good about being involved in the process, like the camaraderie of a group of people performing a task for the greater good without expectation of extrinsic rewards, they like the fuzzy. There there are people like me. People like me join the co-op for one of 2 reasons. They either want to spend less or get more. Simple. Either less cash needs to go out for the same produce, or more produce (or better quality) needs to come in for the same cash. For those like me, the fuzzy is a sort of bonus. It's not that I dislike the fuzzy, it's just not my main motivation.

2. People who join for the same reason I did are not tolerated well by those who actually NEED the fuzzy. (PS, needing the fuzzy isn't negative, it's just different. I used to need it. I don't anymore. :shrug:). Any statement of discontent, frustration, or criticism is going to be taken as a personal attack. It took $40k in student loans and a degree in the social sciences to process this idea fully.

3. One main drawback to the CHC is this idea of non-commitment. At first this sounded grand. Being able to involve myself in this process as much or as little as was comfortable for me, no strings attached, no expectations, sounded so nice. Here's the problem. Not being obligated to something opens you up to "well why don't you just leave if you hate it so much". I so totally should have seen that coming. Not being obligated is the mirror concept to "you have no say in anything". Those with the most commitment have the most say. There is a serious clash of ideologies here. The social service aspect is at war with the consumer aspect of this process. The result is that the consumers who don't cross the line are at the bottom of the heap when it comes to inner workings of the process. For those willing and able to embrace both, you've got it made. For those of us on the fringe of co-op society, we're just screwed.

4. Value is calculated based on all of the above things, and more. My lack of value is your abundance. Personally, I would rather die than see another pineapple in my basket. The value of the basket goes down a smidge when I spot that prickly fruit. The same goes for mangoes and those stinky mushrooms nobody actually eats (I'm sure of it). As a valuable co-op member (see how I did that? I made it come around full circle!) I should be allowed to determine value for myself. This only actually works in theory. If you insist that your produce costs at the grocery store is the same, you will never convince another member of that if their value is tied up in other parts of the co-op experience.

5. Being a leader/manager/organizer/volunteer doesn't mean you are smarter or better or more right than someone in a "lesser" role. I know, I know, that sounds inflammatory. I'm including it here mainly because I need to remember this in my own life. My experiences are not any more (or less) valuable than anyone else's. Boy is this one hard to swallow. I think it's particularly difficult to navigate this because nobody is really very good at it. Our society places value on certain things, which results in an inherent lack of value on other things. The trouble is, there's too damn much going on in all of our lives to truly understand what's happening beyond our personal space. I screw this up all of the time. I know others do too because its been done to me. This is all relevant to the co-op because there is a real air of superiority among those who fit into certain roles. It goes both ways as well. This kind of goes back to the previous points. How we respond to people dictates how they respond to us, and is dictated by how they've been responded to in the past. With this conflict between social/consumer roles the whole thing is even crazier. My social role as a consumer is conflicting with my social role as a fuzzy person which conflicts with my role as a leader (in other aspects of my life) which conflicts with the fact that we're all really nobody at all. Am I making any sense?

6. We are all getting screwed. Yeah, I said it. Here is what's happening. Somebody, somewhere had this great idea. What if we could band together as consumers and buy produce and other items just like the grocery stores do. We could negotiate the price and come out on top. Huzzah! The produce trucks come along and say "sure, we'll work with you. Top rate produce for just about what the grocery stores pay, you've got it". Consumers buy into the idea and the baby is born. The order is placed and some volunteer saint shows up beside the middle school to accept the delivery. The volunteers show up to help (hopefully) and it's all done in literally minutes. Those same volunteers divvy the produce up into bags and enjoy the aforementioned warm fuzzes of communal work. Enter the drama. The onions are all bad. So are the potatoes? What's to be done? Well, my friends, there is nothing. Presumably there is a process for fixing this problem. The process, however, requires more work for the volunteer organizer of the group. She's got a life beyond zucchini and pineapple so most folks don't want to bother her because of a few rotten veggies and some bruised fruit. Meanwhile, back at the produce ranch, the produce companies are banking the profit and unloading produce that grocery stores and larger purchasers would never accept. Maybe they don't even know they're doing it (yeah right, but for the sake of this argument I'll allow it), but in truth if they delivered rotten potatoes to Dierbergs they'd have rotten potatoes waiting for them on their next delivery, and they'd be issuing a credit to the company. Theoretically this is the same for our little CHC people too, except that nobody wants to bother the volunteers, the volunteers don't want to bother with the paperwork (I don't blame them there) and the nearest authority is waaaaaayyyy up the line. I don't believe for a minute that this produce is "first quality". I think it's supposed to be, but it's not. So we're all getting screwed. The only winners here are the produce wholesalers. What I really don't get is why someone at the top who orders the produce wouldn't want to FIX THIS instead of pretending the nay-sayer is off her rocker.

So here it is in a nutshell. I don't like the co-op. It's value for me is not sufficient to negate the negative aspects. Here's the really, REALLY important part (and co-op leader people, I know you're reading, please read this part carefully), my experiences are no less valuable than yours. Why haven't I just moved along if I "hate it so much". Well, it's because I don't hate it so much. Your lens is colored differently than mine. My experiences still matter. As do yours. Perhaps considering things from another perspective could improve your program, maybe even help it achieve perfection for the largest number of people. I would promise to do the same but I already have.

A note to perspective co-op "members" and the leaders, (there's no commitment so I'm not sure that's the right word): YMMV. Don't let the experiences of some make you feel inferior (or more powerful) in your own experiences. If you love it, fantastic. If you don't, no hard feelings.