Up Close and Personal with Three Coop Couples
January 20, 2026
By Susannah Jacob
You don’t have to be a Coop member for long to get the hang of how things go at 782 Union Street. Radicchio and romaine live in the produce aisle, raw cashews are over in the bulk bins, and romance is… everywhere around us. From the new lovebirds making goo goo eyes by the coffee grinders to the longtime marrieds who consider shopping a Friday night date tradition, there’s a whole lot of love going on. In advance of Valentine’s Day, we asked three Coop couples to spill their secrets and shopping strategies.
April Greene & Arthur Meacham
Time together: 14 years
How did you meet?
Arthur: At the end of 2013, I switched from a receiving shift to a Monday night cashier shift, and April was already there. I noticed her, of course, but the Coop is busy. Then, in January 2014, there was a blizzard, and we were the only two cashiers who showed up for the 9 p.m. shift. The store was completely quiet. We just sat together and talked and laughed so much that when it came time to balance our drawers, we had to do it three times because we kept miscounting.
April: It was pretty great. We also did the very romantic walk to the ATM together in a blizzard to dump our envelopes.
Arthur: I asked for her number, and she gave me her business card. I texted her. It bounced, because it was a landline. I emailed her instead. She wrote back saying she’d had a great time but had a boyfriend, though “it’s not going that well.” A month later, at our next shift, she said, “I broke up with that guy.” We went on our first date a few nights later.
April: I remember him walking off into the blizzard carrying two enormous shopping bags for his lentil soup and then realizing he was going the wrong way and turning around. It was very cute. I remember thinking: even if this doesn’t progress, this guy is showing me that better people exist.
Do you work shifts together?
Arthur: Not anymore—we have a six-year-old, Ivy, so someone needs to be home. I work later evening shifts. I love repair shifts because you get to see hidden corners of the Coop, like the roof.
April: I miss our recurring cashier crew—people from that shift came to our wedding. I still love checkout because you get the best conversations. It’s like waiting tables: brief but often meaningful exchanges.
“We just sat together and talked and laughed so much that when it came time to balance our drawers, we had to do it three times because we kept miscounting.”
Do you shop together as a family?
Arthur: April meal-plans, and I shop every weekend by bike. Ivy comes sometimes now—she helps push the cart and pick things out.
April: It’s important to her because the Coop is such a big part of our lives.
Favorite Coop taste sensations?
Arthur: The apples, especially Candy Crisp—I’ve never seen them in a regular supermarket.
April: We have an elaborate cereal setup at home: three cereals, berries and high-protein vegan yogurt.
Any foods you disagree about?
April: Arthur’s vegan, so he’s not thrilled about my smelly cheeses.
Arthur: And I’m morally opposed to Brussels sprouts.
Thomas LeViness & Maura LeVinesS
Time together: 13 years
How did you meet?
Thomas: We met in Mexico. We worked at the same university—we were both teachers.
Maura: I was an art teacher and Thomas was an English teacher. When we met, Thomas was actually thinking about coming back to the U.S.
Thomas: I’d already given my notice. Then we met, and I thought, well, I’m going to stay. The university was happy to let me rescind my resignation.
Maura: Then we went to Spain because Thomas did a master’s degree. We weren’t married then—we are now.
Thomas: We lived there for a year, then moved here for three years, then went back to Mexico, and then came back here again.
Who joined the Coop first?
Maura: We joined at the same time, because one of Thomas’s friends was already a member.
Thomas: I’d actually been to the Coop once in the early ’90s. A friend from Marine Park was a member, and it was very different then. But when we moved here, I remembered it and thought, we’ve got to join the Food Coop.
Maura: Where I’m from in Mexico, we don’t really have places like this. We have the mercado, which is cheap and sort of organic, but this was my first co-op. At first, I thought it was kind of hippie—but I really liked it. Once you start doing shifts, you meet people, and I found everyone very interesting and open-minded.
Do you work shifts together?
Thomas: Yes, we have a recurring shift together—checkout at 10:30. They always put us together. People sometimes look confused when they see us talking so much, and then when they realize we’re a couple, they’re like, “Oh, isn’t that nice?”
Maura: Checkout is my favorite. I like talking to people and seeing all the products come through. I always ask, “What is this, and how are you going to cook it?” People give you recipes.
Do you shop together?
Maura: Always after our shift. We live super close, so we go every couple of days. We try to make a list. We try.
Thomas: And then we buy more than what’s on it.
Maura: Bread is our first stop.
Thomas: She follows the list. I wander off and get lost.
“They always put us together. People sometimes look confused when they see us talking so much, and then when they realize we’re a couple, they’re like, ‘Oh, isn’t that nice?’”
What are your favorite Coop taste sensations?
Thomas: Definitely the bread. Mixed berry scones, blueberry muffins, cinnamon amann, chocolate croissants. The sweet breads are our guilty pleasure. They used to have a cheese Danish that was incredible, but they stopped carrying it after Covid.
Is there a food that only one of you likes?
Thomas: I eat everything.
Maura: I’m allergic to a lot of things—it’s not that I don’t like them, I just can’t eat them.
Thomas: She always wants yogurt. I keep trying all the non-dairy yogurts, and they just don’t agree with me.
Brianna Blagrove & Rocco Persico
Time together: Four years
How did you meet?
Rocco: We met at school. We were both at Stony Brook University.
Brianna: It was our last year—we graduated together. We actually met on Hinge.
Who joined The Coop first?
Brianna: I did. I grew up around here, and my sister and I used to go to Park Slope all the time because we thought it was so cool. Her dad’s girlfriend was a member and always told me, “You see that grocery store? You need a membership to shop there.” So when I moved back to Brooklyn, joining felt inevitable.
Rocco: I didn’t even know what a food coop was. They’re not really a thing where I grew up, in Smithtown on Long Island. But it sounded appealing—a place where everyone understands how it works, everyone’s done shifts, and there’s this shared responsibility. The atmosphere is just nicer.
What are your favorite shifts?
Brianna: We usually work the same shifts. Checkout is my favorite. I’ve also done bread really early in the morning, which I liked, but checkout and office are my go-tos.
Rocco: Same. Checkout and office. I’ve done bulk, too. I wanted to do cheese once, but they moved me because they didn’t need it that day.
What’s your shopping strategy?
Brianna: We almost always shop after our shift.
Rocco: Pretty much every time.
Brianna: I don’t really make a grocery list. When I’m on checkout, I mentally track what other people are buying. If something looks good, I’ll ask, “Where’d you get that?” and then I’ll go find it after. My shopping list is basically other people’s groceries.
What are your favorite Coop taste sensations?
Rocco: I love the marinated Greek lima beans from the fridge near the vegetables. I’m also a sucker for the chocolate bar aisle—especially when we do express checkout, because you’re just staring at it. I almost always grab a chocolate bar.
Brianna: Bagels and cream cheese are staples. He likes everything bagels; I get plain whole wheat.
Is there a food one of you loves that the other can’t stand?
Brianna: I’m the type who buys things just to try them, and then I usually don’t like them—so he eats them.
Rocco: I love those chocolate-covered Greek yogurt bars.
Brianna: I can’t stand them. I like Skyr. No Greek yogurt for me.
Susannah Jacob is a history PhD student and a proficient operator of the slotted, plastic bag-taper machine in the Coop’s bulk department.