Later a store was opened in Lincoln Park, I think it was Fulton Ave? It was fairly avant garde as it tried to make the jump from esoteric health food coop to mainstream healthfood oriented supermarket. They also sold organic beef. I knew the guy who trained to be the butcher there too, but I forget his name as well. Jim something or other.

I also know a bit of extremely trashy gossip about Steven Kriston which I won't repeat here but let's just say that the money didn't make Steve and Dory happy it would seem. Dory always seemed nice, but I had the feeling that Steve was a machinating jerk. I also remember the house father after you asking Steve to pay the ashram premies more and him saying that it wasn't possible. Even the CC, Kirk Ritchie I think talked to him about that. Because they wanted the ashrams to start being more presentable and it just wasn't possible with the measley Rainbow wages.

Another thing that was very popular at the time was that in addition to the normal "slaves", there were community organized "service nights" where other premies, in and out of the ashram would come and work for some hours for free bagging granola or something. I remember being asked, doing it once and then never again. The whole thing seemed completely weird to me even then, as it just wasn't clear what the "service" actually was. Or in other words, it seemed like it was service to Steve. Even at my young, though business-savvy, age I felt like the whole deal wasn't kosher. Exactly for the reasons you say. Why the hell could all the other health food stores manage to do okay without all the slave labor. And on top of that they had an automatic loyal customer base of premies.

Actually now that I am thinking about it I think I bitched quite a few times to ashram premie friends, the house father and the CC about it for exactly those reasons. It seemed utterly absurd that Steven couldn't pay the ashram premies more and that actually it was anti-service what he was doing, because he wasn't supporting the ashram. I would like to think that my words made a difference with the CC, because I do remember some changes happening.

I really don't know, but I remember that when I got there there was this kind of "holiness" about the stores and no one dared speak against them. So then little ol me came along and planted the seed of doubt. I think probably the CC and some others were privately thinking that too, and that my speaking out helped to bring things to the surface. On the other hand maybe I had nothing to do with it.

But in the end somehow the whole discussion becomes absurd. Is it better that the money went to Steve Kriston or Rawat or whomever else? Somehow it is all irrelevant. At the time, I was really being negative because I thought the money wasn't going to Rawat and his mission. Oh yes, by the way, Steve was already driving around in a big fat Mercedes at that time, while the ashram premies were being underpaid and people were spending their nights bagging nuts.