On January 28, 2008 the the Hyde Park Co-Op Market went out of business. The Hyde Park Cooperative Society remanded its lease to the University of Chicago in return for forgiveness by the University of more than $1,000,000 in debt and payment of some $3,000,000 with which to partially cover other debts. The Co-Op is not seeking court relief through bankruptcy.
With the money received from the University, the Co-Op has paid vendors 70% of what was owed them. It also paid employees for sick days and vacation leave, and a modest amount as a retention bonus and for one month of continuing medical benefits.
No money will go to members; their shares are now valuless. Members may count their shares as a tax write-off on their 2008 forms. They can be counted as capital losses on 2008 tax forms (see this tax notice.)
The society has no office or staff. The only way of reaching it is through an email to info@coopmarkets.com which will be forwarded by the webmaster to an appropriate member of the Board.
The property previously occupied by the Market has been leased by the University of Chicago to Treasure Island.
Documents that contain the personal information of members have been shredded. Those that may be needed for future reference, relating to personnel and vendor relations, are being stored by Iron Mountain, a company that specializes in secure storage. The Hyde Park Historical Society has placed historical documents from the Co-Op in its archives and these are available for study by the general public in the Special Collections room of the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library.
The Market is closed, but the Society remains intact as a cooperative community institution. This is principally because, by law, a 2/3 vote of the total membership is needed to disband the Society, and the Co-Op, with 22,000 members, has never come close to getting that number to vote, much less to take a uniform position. Thus the Society must remain in operation though its purpose is unclear without the market; the by-laws were written with constant reference to the market and little direction for anything else.
Thus the Society exists with 19,000 share-holding members and a Board of nine elected members. Board meetings are held under the direction of President James Poueymirou (james.r.poueymirou@wellsfargo.com).
The regular annual election of Board members will be held as indicated by the by-laws between April 16 and April 30.
From now on, there will be no everGreen published and it is unlikely that information can be distributed by mail; there simply is no money. To stay informed, visit this web site and read The Hyde Park Herald. For answers to your questions, write info@coopmarkets.com.