It’s a good problem to have. The Food Coop is making a ton of money — to the tune of $39 million a year, and profits of $500,000. So what should they do with the profits. Lower the prices, start other coops, give it away?

An article in Crains NY reports on this problem. Here’s an excerpt.

The first sign that Brooklyn’s Park Slope Food Coop is unlike any other supermarket in the city are the people milling outside wearing orange-and-yellow vests. Their task is to accompany shoppers on walks home with their groceries—and then return the shopping carts to the Union Street store.

It is a job that reflects the mission of the co-op to cultivate a sense of community, but it also helps solve a growing problem for the organization: finding enough stuff to do for the nearly 16,000 members who must work 2.75 hours for the co-op every four weeks in order to shop there.

Founded in 1973, the Park Slope co-op has grown so dramatically in recent years that it has been forced to limit the number of new members. Its balance sheet is so strong—the co-op paid off its mortgage in January—that general manager and founding member Joe Holtz wonders what to do with more than $500,000 in profits. Last year’s revenues were $39 million.

“If we continue to accumulate cash like this,” he says, “we’ll have to have a meeting and maybe lower our prices again.”

For the first time in its history, the co-op is confronting the fact that it can’t grow its physical space any more. It has purchased all of the available buildings in its path. If the weekend checkout lines get much longer, Linewaiters’ Gazette—the co-op’s aptly named newsletter—won’t be enough to keep shoppers amused.

“We’re pushing the capacity of the building,” says Mr. Holtz, who was the co-op’s first paid employee in 1975.

In trying to alleviate the pressure on the Park Slope store, longtime members like Mr. Holtz are now looking beyond Brooklyn to help other communities replicate their success.