Suck It, Whole Foods: The Park Slope Food Coop Is Highly Profitable

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Giving its emphasis on shared labor and tendency to create refugees, we've always thought of the Park Slope Food Coop as the USSR of grocery stores, but it turns out to be really good at capitalism. Fortune recently reported that the coop made $39.4 million last year, or more than $6,500 per square foot. Grub Street compares this data with an (admittedly rough) estimate of yearly earnings from Whole Foods and determines that the chain made something like $31.2 million in 2010—$8.2 million less than our hometown hippies. The per-square-foot difference is even more dramatic: Whole Foods is pulling in about $838, or one eighth of what the coop makes.
· The rise of the grocery co-op [Fortune]
· The Park Slope Co-op Makes More Money Than Whole Foods [Grub Street]