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.
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