Tough Times For Hyde Park Coop

By vouchey in News on Aug 11, 2004 3:06PM

If you've lived in Hyde Park in the past century, chances are you've shopped in the dark, dank Hyde Park Coop Grocery on 55th Street. It's an institution of the neighborhood, but an expansion to a second store of East 47th Street has endangered the health of the Coop's finances, according to Crain's Chicago Business [Trial Registration Required].

Not surprisingly, the flagging sales of the new store has caused a rift in the Coop's leadership -- especially since the Coop board approved the new store by only a 5-4 vote. But the 47th Street store was also hailed across the nation as a sign of regeneration of the Kenwood neighborhood -- so now bitterness prevails. From Crain's:

When Lake Park Pointe Shopping Center on East 47th Street and South Lake Park Avenue was completed in August 1999 — with Co-op Markets as its anchor — it was hailed as far afield as the New York Times as a savior for a neighborhood stymied by poverty, drugs and crime. Revitalization, however, has been slow. "We were trying to jump into the market as it was expanding to the north, but it hasn't expanded enough," Mr. Cooley says. "The new store hasn't picked up the customers it needs to survive."

Maybe Jewel or Dominick's will move in?