hampden park co-op, field trip deux

I'm pretty sure I brought up the fact that I have never been to this co-op about five times this semester, SO, I finally trekked down Raymond after class this week and checked it out. Good thing I had a field trip assignment to do, otherwise who knows when I would have made it over there!

As it's been described to me, Hampden Park Co-op is probably the most "throwback-y" cooperative grocery store that still exists in the Twin Cities, evoking the roots of the co-op movement that happened here in the 70s. It's small, but packed full of stuff, and they carry the full range of what you'd expect to see in a grocery store: Produce, dry boxed foods, bulk bins, frozen food, milk, eggs, cheese, bread, snacks.

Part of the bulk section... so much!

I wasn't one hundred percent sold on their produce. I suspect they don't have too high of a turnover because it's a little neighborhood store, and some of it didn't look very fresh. I did find a nice bunch of chard though (I ended up buying some things before I left!). I also found some Medjool dates in the produce coolers--and they were INCREDIBLE. Now I understand why people rave about these. The Medjools I've had were really tough and chewy--not so with these. They are soft, sticky, and intensely sweet. What.else.could.you.want. I might have to make a trip back just for more of those.

I was impressed with how many gluten-free flours they carried. I have never seen so many different types of non-wheat flour. I didn't even know some of these existed. Sorghum flour? Coconut flour? These are real things.

A few more shots of the store itself... their cheese case, next to which there were some deli foods and other prepared refrigerated things. They also had a goodly selection of cookies, which I had a really hard time not buying.

Hampden Park is staffed almost completely by volunteer-members, which is pretty much how co-ops originally used to work, from what I understand. As a member, you get a discount on everything in the store in exchange for several hours of work each month.

This is how they do their scheduling! People literally just sign up for the shifts they want. It must work itself out somehow. They do have a handful of paid managers who make sure things are running properly.

I wish there were a tiny, retro, volunteer-run co-op in my neighborhood. This was a fun place to visit. Hopefully I'll (probably will, let's be honest the dates won't last that long) be back some time!