At One Food Market, It’s Ideals vs. Reality
食物合作社 理想受到考驗
By Michael Wilson

The woman looked like any other grocery shopper that day until the general manager of the store, after a tip, peered at the feed from the security cameras.
那一天，這名女子看來與其他購物者無異，直到賣場經理接獲密報、看了監視錄影畫面，才被揭穿。

The manager, Joe Holtz, described what he believed he saw: “A person walks around and puts some things in a basket that they were going to pay for, and other things in a bag that they weren’t going to pay for.”
經理霍茲如此形容他自認為看到的畫面：「有個人到處走動，把一些東西放進準備付錢的籃子，其他東西放入一個不打算付錢的袋子。」

The scene was the Park Slope Food Co-op, an institution that exemplifies the utopian, we-can-do-it-ourselves ethos of 1970s Brooklyn as few others do. The Co-op is open only to its members, who number 16,390 recently – close to the peak – and must work 2 hours and 45 minutes every four weeks in an oft-written-about arrangement that dates back 40 years. This practically eliminates payrolls and keeps prices lower than at chain supermarkets. The quality tends to be high.
這場景發生在「公園坡食物合作社」。它具體展現1970年代紐約布魯克林區的烏托邦自給自足精神，可謂絕無僅有。它只對會員開放，人數最近達到接近高峰的16,390人，會員每四星期須義務服務2小時45分鐘。這種經常受到討論的經營方式已有40年歷史，省掉了薪資開銷，東西比連鎖超市便宜，品質高。

“We were just young people who were aware of better food,” Mr. Holtz recalled of the heady early days.
霍茲憶起當年巔峰期說：「我們當時只是對較良好食物有認識的年輕人。」

But every now and then, glorious social ideals bump into reality. And so they have here, where shoplifting is on the rise.
然而高尚的社會理想不時會與現實衝突。現在合作社就碰上了；順手牽羊的人變多了。

Mr. Holtz’s past estimates of theft came out to an average of $700 a day. But this month, he revised that to $1,200 a day – or $438,000 a year.
霍茲過去估計每天平均有700美元商品失竊。這個月他把數字上調至1200美元，相當於每年43.8萬美元。

And because the only people who shop at the Co-op are members, the thefts are essentially inside jobs. Lots of them.
由於合作社只限會員採購，偷竊幾可肯定是內賊所為。例子不少。

“A member and an owner are interchangeable,” Mr. Holtz said. “If a member is stealing from the cooperative, they are actually stealing from themselves.”
霍茲說：「會員與經營者角色可以互換。會員在合作社行竊，等於偷自己的東西。」

The level of “shrink,” or lost merchandise, be it a dropped carton of eggs or a pilfered baguette, is a source of no small amount of scrutiny. The average of shrink for independent stores like the Co-op is about 1.62 percent of the gross margin, according to the most recent study by the Food Marketing Institute, in 2009.
萎縮（因失竊或損失導致庫存減少）的程度，無論是一箱雞蛋摔壞或一條長棍麵包失竊，都應詳查。根據「食物銷售研究所」2009年公布的最新調查報告，公園坡合作社這樣的獨立商店平均萎縮率約占毛利的1.62%。

The rate at the Co-op remains lower than that, but it has jumped. Mr. Holtz said the co-op’s shrink had grown in recent years from 0.75 percent to 1.2 percent.
公園坡合作社的萎縮率雖仍低於此數，卻已大增。霍茲說，萎縮率近年已由0.75%增至1.2%。

“In my opinion, that is the amount of the increase in annual theft,” Mr. Holtz wrote recently in the Linewaiters’ Gazette, the store’s house newsletter.
霍茲最近透過合作社簡訊Linewaiters’ Gazette指出：「我認為，這是每年偷竊增加的數字。」

In the 1990s, the store built a “high chair” near the registers, where a member was supposed to sit and watch people shop.
1990年代，合作社在收銀台附近增設一張「高椅」，安排一名會員坐在上面監視人們購物。

“It was very unpopular,” Mr. Holtz said. “Almost no one used it.” But he said the chair, even empty, raised awareness of theft. A logical next step would be to hire a security guard, but Mr. Holtz doesn’t want to do that. So he is calling for heightened vigilance.
霍茲說：「這很不受歡迎。幾乎沒人用它。」不過他說，即使空著，這張椅子還是可以提高人們對偷竊的警覺。雇用警衛是合理的下一步，然而霍茲不想這麼做。因此，他呼籲會員提高警覺。

Traditionally, members caught stealing are punished from within. The sentence: barred for life.
傳統上，會員當場人贓俱獲，須接受內部處罰：終身剝奪會員資格。

In September, a tipster reported that a member was stealing groceries five times a week. “Appearances can be deceiving,” Mr. Holtz wrote, “but the worst-case scenario turned out to be true.” The member was presented with photographic evidence of the thefts and resigned.
今年九月，有人密告某一會員平均每星期行竊五次。霍茲說：「表象可能誤導，然而最嚴重的假想狀況經證明是真的。」這名會員看過合作社出示的錄影證據後，退出了合作社。

Theories abound for the reasons for the rise, everything from financial pressures on the members in their lives outside the Co-op to heightened scrutiny within.
會員行竊因何增多，說法林林總總，包括在社外承受財務壓力及內部加強了監視。

Occasionally the police are summoned, most recently in October for the woman with the bag and the basket. Another member told Mr. Holtz that she seemed to have been stealing, and after he reviewed the video, he asked to be alerted the next time she visited the store. That was on October 25, and when, Mr. Holtz said, she appeared to be placing items, as she had in the past, in a bag other than in the basket, the police were called.
合作社偶爾會報警，最近一次是今年十月處理前述女會員偷竊的案子。另一會員告訴霍茲，這名女子似已行竊多次。他看了錄影畫面後，要求同事在她再來時提醒他。那天是10月25日。霍茲說，當她一如往常把商品放進袋子而不是籃子時，賣場立刻報警。

“I think the person was in shock,” Mr. Holtz said. So were the officers, when they confronted the woman beyond the checkout and opened the bag and found what was inside: three rolls of Scotch tape, a rolling pin and a cookie cutter with alphabet shapes.
霍茲說：「我認為，她當時一定嚇了一跳。」員警在收銀台外攔下她，打開袋子，發現裡面只有三捲透明膠帶、一支麵棍及一個英文字母形狀的餅乾壓模時，同樣大感意外。

“The police come and say, ‘You called us for $25? You want to go through with this?’ ” Mr. Holtz said. The answer was yes.
霍茲說：「警員走過來問道，『你們為了25美元而報警？你們真想追究到底？』」答案是肯定的。

The incident stuck with Mr. Holtz. “On a personal note, I have to say that my sadness around arresting someone drowned out my anger,” he wrote in the newsletter – but he added, lest anyone believe he was going soft: “for a time.”
霍茲始終記得這件事。他在合作社簡訊中說：「以個人的立場而言，我必須說，有人被捕這件事，我的悲哀遠大於憤怒。」不過他又說，為了不讓別人認為他心軟，「總得做一次」。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/nyregion/reality-intrudes-at-a-utopian-market-in-brooklyn-with-light-fingers.html

2013-12-17聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版左