Cooperatives

“A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise” (International Cooperative Alliance). Most co-ops are organized as non-profit corporations but, unlike typical non-profits, co-ops often distribute surplus revenues as “patronage dividends” to members. In a cooperative, each member has an equal vote.

General information about cooperatives

• The National Cooperative Business Association assists in the development of all kinds of cooperative businesses, primarily by acting as an information and consulting resource.
• The International Co-operative Alliance advocates for and advances the cooperative movement worldwide.
• CommunityWealth is a project of The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland and provides information about cooperatives.
• Food Co-op 500 supports the development of cooperative grocery stores

Cooperative businesses

• Bicycle Kitchen (Los Angeles, CA) and The Bike Kitchen (San Francisco, CA) are educational cooperatives that help people fix their own bikes.
• The C'Ville Arts Cooperative Gallery (Charlottesville, VA) is an artisan-owned producer cooperative which returns 92% of actual sales to its member artisans.
• Barrel's Community Market is organized as a non-profit by the Waterville, Maine, Main Street organization. Barrels Community Market buys and sells food, crafts, and tools that are produced locally and sustainably.
• The Harvard Coop (usually pronounced "cupe"), selling textbooks and university apparel, was founded by students in 1882.
• The Independent Purchasing Cooperative is an independent supplier to Subway restaurants, owned by Subway franchisees.
• The Merc in Powell, WY, has been profiled in Smithsonian Magazine, on National Public Radio, on CBS television, by NewRules.org, and in the National Trust's journal, Preservation Forum. The Merc was inspired by the Little Muddy Dry Goods in Plentywood, MT.
• Moosewood Restaurant, a nationally-renown vegetarian eatery in Ithaca, NY, is a worker-owned "collective".
• Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union
• The New Deal Café in Greenbelt, MD, serves up Lebanese food, live entertainment, and art installations. The cooperatively-owned Café's business plan can also be accessed through its website.
• Toscarora Organic Growers is a producers' cooperative which aggregates the produce of local growers in south-central Pennsylvania and then markets and distributes the produce to high-end restaurants in Washington, DC -- about 120 miles away. Larger examples of producer cooperatives include Sunkist and Ocean Spray.
• TruServ is the buyers' cooperative for independently-owned True Value Hardware Stores.

Food Coops

• Glut Food Coop (Mt. Rainier, MD), and a story about them in the Washington Post.
• Harvest Co-op in Boston, MA, was founded in 1971 and now has two locations in the region.
• The Lexington Cooperative Market (Buffalo, NY) was founded in 1971.
• The Merc in Lawrence, Kansas, sells produce and meats raised on family-owned farms around Eastern Kansas. The Merc also offer cooking classes and classes in healthy eating.
• The Park Slope Food Coop sources many of its products from within 500 miles of New York City.
• Weavers Way Co-op, a community-owned food market in Philadelphia, recently expanded to a second store and is on its way to opening its third store.
• Whole Foods Co-op, in Duluth, Minnesota, was founded in 1970 and, in 2010 had about 5,000 members in a city of 86,000.