Kensington Community Food Co-op

Mar 29th, 2023

After being closed for so long, this place seems to be exactly the same. Also tired of them constantly electing board members. Lower the prices!
Mar 10th, 2023

Really happy this community-owned grocery store is here - good selection of products, both affordable and higher end, bulk spices which is amazing, as well as bulk coffee, grains and oils.
Mar 1st, 2023

I want this co-op to succeed but the issues are the founders, board, and management have bad vision and really lack the savvy to make this place thrive. I was initially excited to join when I first moved to Philadelphia. However after shopping here for months, I could never find everything I needed to make a decent meal. Their low stock was due to them being behind in payments. Sure COVID affected supply but you can go to other markets within a 3 mile radius (although they are few and far between) and find the same things for a lot less. Why were they behind in payments? Their focus on neoliberal, green-washed, pseudoscientific, "feel-good" marketing resulted in them stocking mostly overpriced and subpar products with shorter self lives. For example, $5 will get you a 1/2 wilted, anemic bunch of organic spinach at this market. I've gone into this market multiple times in one week and have seen no rotation or replacement of produce stock. I've encountered flies in some the bread they stock. I hate big corporations, environmental degradation, and the abuse/exploitation of livestock and agricultural workers as much as anyone. But they need to read the room. Philadelphia is one of the poorest large cities in America and PA-2 is the poorest district in PA. I'm lucky enough to make decent wages but most of the people here are poor. How can parents feed their kids when a pound of strawberries is $8 and four wilted beets are $6? Unsurprisingly, they closed down temporarily after a bankruptcy last year and reopened a couple of weeks ago thanks to crowdfunding. I went in a couple of days ago and saw that they had a few slightly more affordable brands on the shelves. However their produce was still rotting and inedible. They had some overripe bananas for $0.25/lb though! Their closure last year was not the first time the co-op was in trouble. Unfortunately it will not be the last time either.
Feb 10th, 2023

Cute little organic market on the edge of Kenso. Dumb expensive though.
Feb 2nd, 2023