Bethlehem Co-Op Boondoggle to Meet Feb. 23; Will They Announce a Real Opening Date After 15 Years?

Feb. 17, 2026

— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs

The Bethlehem Co-Op Boondoggle will meet Feb. 23. It won’t meet at 250 E. Broad St., because the Bethlehem Co-Op Boondoggle headquarters is not open, years after it first promised to feed the huddled masses in an affluent neighborhood and bring nutritious food to the occupants of the 42 yuppie apartments upstairs.

Will it announce an opening date? The Boondoggle took more than $3 million from taxpayers, said it would open in 2022 and then delayed or “adjusted” its opening date multiple times, frittering away money on operating expenses while not operating, generally blowing smoke and thumbing its nose at the public.

The board of the Boondoggle, which for some reason prefers to call itself the Bethlehem Co-Op Market, has vowed not to set an opening date again until everything is just right.

Meanwhile, the rented space on Broad Street looked like a mess when I went by about 10 days ago. Nothing had changed in weeks, and a big can of Pringles’ new-fangled potato chips was the only food seen at the market that was going to bring fresh, nutritious food to the masses.

A can of extruded potato snacks: not a good look for the temple of nutrition and righteousness.

The masses seem to have done just fine without the Co-Op, which started in theory in 2011, and started touting its case to a gullible Bethlehem City Council back in 2019. A majority of that same council were Boondoggle members.

The pleading led to $2.9 million in federal dollars, $100,000 in state money and $105,000 of federal funds that Council could have used to fix a street or something but instead diverted to the Boondoggle.

The Boondogglers will gather at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 23 in person at the Northampton Community College Fowler Center, 511 E. Third St. in south Bethlehem, with a virtual option.

Alas, I probably can’t listen to this one, but I’m sure there will be a happy and peppy Boondoggle statement the next day. Anyway, I don’t believe a thing that I hear at these meetings.

Meanwhile, the Boondoggle website is promoting online shopping, but whether the items and prices are placeholders are for real, I don’t know. I don’t trust anything I see on that website. I don’t trust the Boondoggle or the Boondogglers.

One of the brands on the site is Cadia, from the distributor Kehe. Kehe is employee-owned but has at least once accepted investment from a private equity firm. I’m not familiar with its products, but Cadia says its food is organic and natural. That sounds nice, but until the Boondoggle actually sells a can of organic cranberry sauce, we won’t know.

As for the prices on the website, maybe they’re not for real but some of them don’t look to be competitive with grocery stores. I’ll check more on that. Meanwhile, if I want a shopping experience with real options, I’ll keep going to Trader Joe’s.

Of course, the Boondoggle needs money. It always does. Last fall, a member suggested a strategy of “targeting millionaires” which sounded menacing until I realized she just meant to target their money. Then, it still sounded menacing. Taking money to … to spend more money?

They need money. They’d like low-interest loans, but they really want donations. And why not? Doesn’t 15 years of pretending to serve the public count for something?

Boondoggle On!