Paris food co-op gets American start — during vacation
PARIS (AP) — The government has shut down, the corner baker is away for a month, and traffic is running with uncanny finesse.
In an effort to change that, the American founders of a new cooperative grocery association in Paris are trying to democratize access to quality ingredients, but they're asking people to labor a bit for all that flavor.
[...] unlike that operation, which serves one of Brooklyn's priciest neighborhoods, La Louve is in an area Horihan says is traditionally underserved, particularly with regard to quality food.
Hajar El Karmouni became a founding member of sorts in February 2013, more than a year before La Louve's official launch.
Consumer co-ops used to carry a lot of weight in France, but that was before World War II "did tremendous damage" to that sector, said David Thompson, a historian and business consultant who has written extensively on international co-op movements.
Between anti-cooperative fascist ideologies and the post-war rise of supermarkets, he said most small member-owned consumer co-ops in France folded by the mid-20th century.