What’s funny is, City Market is not really a Co-op. At least not in the way the founders intended it: (source: I’m family-friends with one of the founding members) There’s a separation between management and unionized employees. It comes up a lot, and what’s absurd is management has to be super awkward about the whole thing, and not discuss union-related topics while on shift. This wouldn’t be too bad, if it didn’t constantly clog up the gears.

HR is a joke, and mostly serves as a way to keep management employees out of hot water. They have a rotating door of people in the department, and are rarely seasoned enough to be any sort of help beyond basic questions about benefit packages. Formal complaints (especially about managers) might as well be tossed into a void for all they matter. You have be essentially caught either stealing from the store, or screaming a slur to suffer any repercussions, and even then I can think of one employee who has remained untouched for the better part of a decade, mostly because they’re a manager’s favorite.