What Is A Coop?

[Carol]

Currently, I am a manager of the North Hilo Hamaukua Coast Agricultural Cooperative leasing 102 lots to farmers. Some farms are just a few acres, others 20 acres. These are long term leases with the state but the best part is about farmers working together and helping each other. Here is some more info on what a Coop does.

What Is A Coop?
http://www.coopdirectory.org/#What%20is%20a%20Co-op?


In the loosest sense, a co-op is any voluntary organization composed of a group of individuals (or organizations) formed for their mutual (generally, financial) benefit. A familiar example is a group of roommates who rent an apartment together to save money.

These informal associations and the more formal ones discussed below all share a number of common features.
They all are democratic, volunteer associations.
They are formed for mutual financial benefit (to save money or to increase buying power); in short, they are businesses.
They have no owners other than their members.
They are non-profit organizations; what would be profit in other organizations is returned to the member/owners.

Coops are all around us - they are everywhere! They include:
Credit unions
Mutual insurance companies (Invented by Ben Franklin in 1752)
Housing co-ops
Rural electric power co-ops
Consumer goods co-ops (REI comes to mind)
Distribution coops (Ace Hardware)
Producer co-ops (Sunkist, Land’O Lakes)

For more information on the various types of co-ops in the US and around the world check out the National Cooperative Business Association and the International Cooperative Alliance sites.

The CDS is dedicated to promoting one form of consumer co-op, namely the natural food co-op. These natural food co-ops deal primarily with food products that are "natural" – those produced with a minimum of processing and with little or no additives or preservatives (much of this food is also organically grown).

There are three types of natural food coops that CDS deals with:
BUYING CLUBS - these are (generally) informal organizations of friends, members of church groups, etc. who buy food together from a food co-op warehouse.
COOP GROCERY STORES – much like a buying club except that they are (generally) formal co-op corporations often with thousands of member/owners. It must be emphasized that you do not have to be a member of the food co-op to shop in these stores.
COOP DISTRIBUTORS - These supply their members/owners (including buying clubs and grocery stores) with food. Until last year all of the distributors we list were, themselves, co-ops owned by their member/customers. Due to unbearable market forces one of them folded and two others sold out to a private firm – the remaining two have not as of this writing, succumbed. With, as they say, a heavy heart we will provide links to these commercial warehouses as long as they continue to support sales to co-op buying clubs.

Otherwise, each of these coops are non-profit organizations formed by people to provide low cost healthy food primarily to members of their organization.

What Is A Buying Club?
The short answer is: a group of people who buy food together from a Coop Distributor.
The long answer is: to really know what a buying club is requires knowledge of how it operates.
Typically, they are composed of seven or more families, who share the chores of collecting money from the member families, placing the order with the distributor, helping unload the truck when it arrives at the drop-off site and dividing up the individual orders.

How Can I Find One Near Me?
Look for one listed on the Coop Directory. If you can’t find one near you, then contact your regional Coop Distributor and ask them if they can give you information about a buying club in your area. Sometimes they will take your name and pass it on to the local buying clubs who may elect to contact you.
Please appreciate that many buying clubs consider themselves private organizations that want to be careful about accepting new members.
Note many of the distributors allow you to link to a location on their site that will lead you to a buying club near you.

How To Start And Run A Buying Club
What resources are available to help me do this?
The basic rule is very simple --- contact the Coop Distributor in your area and follow their advice.
Note that the number of buying clubs in the US is probably over twenty times the number of food co-op storefronts. These buying clubs are a very important source of business for the Coop Distributor. Most have customer service representatives that are dedicated to servicing the needs of buying clubs. You may want to follow their procedures for locating and perhaps joining an existing buying club.
In fact, if you want to start your own buying club it is highly recommended that you join an existing club temporarily to “learn the ropes.”
Some other resources on starting buying clubs and grocery stores are available:
A nice collection of tips on running a buying club has been provided by Blooming Prairie.

How To Start A Cooperative Food Buying Club
Starting Out Right (Guidelines for Organizing a New Retail Cooperative) Paperback $7
How to Organize and Run a Coop Food Buying Club, video $19
Food Buying Club Special : Starting Out Right, paperback , and How to Organize and Run a Coop Food Buying Club, video $24

Consumer Co-ops: Managing a Pre-Order Food Cooperative
Some nice (free) software has been developed to assist buying clubs manage their accounts.

If your buying club grows very large and your group is considering opening a store front (= co-op grocery store), you may want to contact The North Country Cooperative Development Fund which may provide technical assistance and loans to your group. Their membership area includes 11 upper midwestern states.