The Cleveland Food Co-op is Closed

The Cleveland Food Co-op is closed. It has been closed since June, 2011 but sadly, I just noticed yesterday. I guess I was part of the demographic that did not provide them adequate patronage in the past few years.

That's not to say that I never provided them adequate patronage. At one time, they were my main squeeze, as far as grocery stores go. And I cannot begin to estimate how many hundreds of lunches, snacks, and light, on-the-go dinners I improvised and ate while sitting on the railroad ties that made up an elevated garden bed outside the Co-op's front door. As recently as within the last 2 years, I had a cooking client who preferred me to do all of her grocery shopping at the Co-op...and so I did.

Way back before anyone really cared about organic, or natural, or healthy, or vitamins, the Food Co-op did. Having been a vegetarian or near-vegetarian/pescatarian for some 12 years, the Co-op was really the only game in town for me back then, especially if I required a food item that was a deviation from the Standard American Diet. Plus, it was really the only full-service grocery near University Circle, Little Italy, and the western edge of East Cleveland. I guess the folks in those neighborhoods who are mobile must now drive elsewhere to shop, and those who are a little more landlocked must have to take the bus to the hit-or-miss Aldi on Euclid Ave., which hardly compares to the Co-op during its heyday.

It's too bad. The Co-op did healthy in Cleveland before Wild Oats, or Mustard Seed, or Whole Foods.

But to paraphrase a musician friend who wants to write a hit:

You don't want to be ahead-of-your-time, you want to be right-on-time.

So true, for any commercial endeavor. Farewell, Co-op...you were one of the good ones.