It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate, report, explore, from WBEZ.

Hi, I'm Curious City reporter Monica Eng, and I know some people hate grocery shopping. But curiosity questioner, Katie Hansen,

is another story. I personally love grocery shopping. I often visit multiple grocery

stores because I just love it so much. But when Katie shops in Chicago, there's one kind of

grocery store she says she misses, the food co-op.

Those grocery stores owned by a bunch of members who invest in it and help make decisions about the store,

then share in the profits, if there are any.

Chicago's got exactly one, with one other in Oak Park.

And Katie thinks that's weird, because she's seen plenty of food co-ops in Madison,

Wisconsin, and Minneapolis, places a lot smaller than Chicago. So I just was wondering if it was

a matter of laws in the city or demographics that would make Chicago not a great environment for

something like that to thrive. These are good questions, especially since Chicago is such a big foodie town with such an active

local food movement.

And Katie's right, we don't have a lot of co-op grocery stores.

But it's not really because of laws or regulations.

It's more about how certain social and political movements played out here.

To understand, you have to go back in history. Music it's more about how certain social and political movements played out here.

To understand, you have to go back in history.

Stuart Reed is with the Food Co-op Initiative, which helps launch co-ops around the nation.

He says here in the United States, the co-op model took off in three main waves.

Food co-ops got started during the first wave in the Great Depression, when food and jobs were scarce.

Co-ops were one of the solutions for feeding themselves and finding work.

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