Hyde Park is about to enter its third month without a fully stocked supermarket, and its seventh week of what was originally expected to be a fortnight with no supermarket open at all. This is enough to make one wonder how the University could have promised that by shutting down the Co-Op Market and forgiving its debt, the University could ensure that the neighborhood would be without a grocery store for no more than two weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Birth
The Hyde Park Co-Operative Society was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, November or December of 1932, by the Shank Family, who lived on 57th Street on the second story of a bookstore, the same building that currently houses the Hyde Park Bank. It was originally a buying club, a strategy against the tough times, where members pooled their resources in order to buy in bulk from wholesalers and save money. When it became clear that the scheme was failing, the small group approached Chicago economics professor and eventual state senator Paul H. Douglas for advice. He suggested they open a store. Mr. Shank was hired as its manager, and Mr. Leon H. Despres handled the legal birth of the store as a non-profit organization. Read the rest of this entry »

What else could you possibly want to know about the Hyde Park grocery situation? If you’ve been following so much as the everGreen, you probably know why the Co-Op Market has closed its automatic doors for good, that soon a Treasure Island location will replace it, and what deeper issues Hyde Park’s little game of musical grocery stores has dredged up. But one question remains unaddressed by the neighborhood media: What the hell is a Treasure Island? Read the rest of this entry »

Recent events in the Hyde Park grocery situation have cast a shadow of destitution over the appetites of many of the area’s residents. Because the Co-op on 55th Street, Hyde Park’s major grocer, is scheduled for departure on the January 28 and has stopped carrying perishable inventory, its customers have unwillingly been converted into vehement “vegetarians” whose cause is not that of animal rights but one of wanting to prepare a well-balanced meal. Well, Hyde Park, as of this Wednesday you can finally appease your growling stomachs with what you have been waiting for. The Hyde Park Produce family is ready to satisfy all of your hunger pangs. Read the rest of this entry »