I have what's called a formative apprenticeship at Coop Italia, which is one of the largest cooperatives in Italy. It runs a series of supermarkets and "hyper"-markets (where you can buy everything, as in Wal-mart) where it sells many goods that are marked with the Coop label. I'm not sure how the cooperative part works, exactly, but I do know that they work very hard to embrace ethical business initiatives, which is why I'm here. They're also trying to follow the British co-op example by expanding into cell phones and other such things.
As an apprentice, I'm here to learn from them, do general go-fer things as all 22 year olds must, and provide a connection between Coop Italia and Social Accountability International, the labor standard NGO that I worked for in NYC. The building holds 200+ people who do everything from label designing to monitoring dessert production. Who knows what else. So far I've done lots of reading about the history of Coop and of ethical business in Italy. I've translated articles and I've had meetings with people who work in the field of my apprenticeship. I think that my supervisors are going to start steering me towards work on Coop's stance on immigration, which is what I'm really interested in. They're currently embroiled in some issues with migrant tomato pickers in the south - apparently, certain tomatoes, for certain uses, are too soft to be picked by machines, which is where undocumented, exploited immigrants come in. (The story is familiar, but the tomato part - only in Italy.)
The really surreal thing about working here is the surplus of Coop-labeled food in every office. This week I've been eating a lot of cookies for babies (imprinted with ducks and sheep). I also like the food at the lunch room, but unfortunately there's a rift between myself and the serving ladies - it took me two weeks to understand that there are rules concerning lunch, and they are very frustrated. At the beginning I thought that you could take whatever you wanted from the lunch line - but that was because I am a greedy American. In fact, you only get one primi (first course: pasta, soup) and one secondi (second course: meat, vegetables, salad, cheese), and you'd better take one of each or you'll end up hungry. It was very confusing to me, in the beginning, that I couldn't skip the pasta and have the salad and the cheese. But being yelled at in a semi-foreign language in front of the entire lunch line and cafeteria will teach anyone the rules. (And if you want to know what the cafeteria itself is like, imagine your high school lunch room. You know - standing in the middle of a big room full of people, holding a tray, trying to find someone to sit with. Except in this case I don't really know anyone and I'm a little slow on the small-talk.)
On a happier note, the oranges here are amazing. Because they're Sicilian. And Bologna has put up its Christmas decorations, which are very happy and festive, and in true Italian fashion there is absolutely no continuity from street to street.
And a quick anecdote about shopping at the Coop supermarkets: this weekend I saw one of the best gadgets of all time. It works like this: you become a member of the Coop and get a little card, like you would for any supermarket in the States. When you get to the supermarket, you swipe your card at the entrance and you're given a personal scanner that says "Ciao!" to you. You also get a few shopping bags. As you travel around the supermarket, you swipe your purchases as you go, and the little gadget records them. You fill up your bags as you put things into your cart. At the end, you get in line and hand your scanner to the person at the cash register. He or she records the amount, you pay, and you leave. I may be a geek, but that is pretty damn amazing.
Happy almost-Thanksgiving. More about work when I know more myself.
6 comments:
Does Co-op Italia make kitty kibbles? How about catnip topolini? Please shop for and bring back some of the topo's for me . . . and stop cavorting with those undocumented kitties in your new apartment.
I am glad that the Tony guy is not really stalking you.
love,
Dinkie
I say embrace your American greed. But that probably also means that you have to take more than you will eat and throw away the rest – preferably in front of a starving child.
Stalk Stalk.
Take some extra cheese throw it in an envelope and mail it to CT. C/O Mike who loves Italian Cheese.
oy! your readership completely skyrocketed! and thank god for that explanation.. i was sorta just telling everybody that you were doing 'social' things and leaving it at that. now i can send them a handy hyperlink when they bother me.
and how has my fake alias already been co-opted? i hadnt used it in years and i was all ready to slide right back into it, and now its being sullied. but, isnt it interesting that im being co-opted in a post about co-ops? eh? eh? ill be here all week.
heya emma, your pictures are all wonderful! i really love them, and, reading all about your travels. i went to a coop in sansepolcro :) love, tanya
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