I live in a city with a handful of different co-ops that I sometimes go to because of specific goodies and at check out they ask if I’m a member- which I am not.
All I know about co-ops if from an episode of Broad City (iykyk)
In: Economics
It can depend on the co-op model. Probably the most common for food co-ops is the “Member Owner” model.
When you become a member, you pay a certain dollar amount, but you are not paying for membership. You are buying part ownership in the co-op, in the same way that buying stock in a business is buying part ownership of that business.
As an owner of the business, you usually get a member-owner discount. Depending on the co-op’s financial model, you may be paid dividends, or that money may simply be reinvested into the business. You are probably eligible to vote for board of directors or ballot-based decisions. If you decide to stop being an owner, you can usually sell your share back to the co-op and receive your money back, or potentially more if the co-op is more wealthy than when you bought in.
The idea of the co-op model is to avoid some billionaire owner who lives three states over and siphons money from your community simply because they had enough money in the first place to buy/open a grocery store. Instead, all of the money from the co-op stays in the community because the owners are generally the people who shop there.
A few co-ops use the “Member-Owner-Worker-Shopper” model like in Broad City, where in order to be a member-owner you must also be a part-time worker, and *only* member-owners may shop there. The Brooklyn Co-Op is a famous example, pretty sure that’s the one in BC. Anyone who shops there must *also* be an employee. This model is not very popular for the obvious reason that many people don’t really want a part-time job at a grocery store, and also the fact that if you have 1,000 members you wind up giving people 15 minute shifts stocking onions just so everyone can have a job.
Joining a co-op basically means becoming a shareholder in the business. By buying into the co-op, you may gain benefits like discounts, profit sharing (perhaps in the form of a gift card to use at the store at end of the year), perhaps some sort of ability to voice opinions about the business (types of goods to carry, what benefits to offer employees, expansion).
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