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". Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives may include:
Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer co-operative with a family of retail businesses including food retail, wholesale, e-pharmacy, insurance and legal services, and funeral care.
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844, though the history of co-operation in Britain can be traced back to before 1800. The British co-operative movement is most commonly associated with The Co-operative brand which has been adopted by several large consumers' co-operative societies; however, there are many thousands of registered co-operative businesses operating in the UK. Alongside these consumers' co-operatives, there exist many prominent agricultural co-operatives (621), co-operative housing providers (619), health and social care cooperatives (111), cooperative schools (834), retail co-operatives, co-operatively run community energy projects, football supporters' trusts, credit unions, and worker-owned businesses.
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Consumers' cooperatives often take the form of retail outlets owned and operated by their consumers, such as food co-ops. However, there are many types of consumers' cooperatives, operating in areas such as health care, insurance, housing, utilities and personal finance.
A food cooperative or food co-op is a food distribution outlet organized as a cooperative, rather than a private or public company. Food cooperatives are usually consumer cooperatives, where the decisions regarding the production and distribution of its food are chosen by its members. Like all cooperatives, food cooperatives are often based on the 7 Rochdale Principles, and they typically offer natural foods. Since decisions about how to run a cooperative are not made by outside shareholders, cooperatives often exhibit a higher degree of social responsibility than their corporate analogues.
The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business organization.
PCC Community Markets is a food cooperative based in Seattle, Washington. With over 58,000 members, it is the largest consumer-owned food cooperative in the United States. Both members and non-members may shop at the retail locations, but members receive certain discounts. The organization currently operates fifteen retail locations. Eight of the fifteen stores are located in Seattle. The West Seattle location reopened on October 2, 2019. The other seven are located in Issaquah, Kirkland, Burien, Bothell, Redmond, Edmonds and Bellevue.
Dublin Food Co-operative Society Limited is a consumer co-operative founded in 1983 and based in Kilmainham, Dublin, with a focus on organic and wholefood products. The Dublin Food Co-op is part of the worldwide co-operative movement.
The Wedge Community Co-op or The Wedge is a food cooperative located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Located at 2105 Lyndale Avenue South, the Wedge derives its name from the popular nickname for the Lowry Hill East neighborhood, called "The Wedge" due to its shape. The Wedge is a member of the NCBA and the NCGA.
National Co+op Grocers (NCG) is a business services cooperative for retail cooperative grocery stores located throughout the United States. NCG helps unify natural food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere. NCG's headquarters are located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, home to a number of Food Cooperatives, such as Wedge Community Co-op, as well as the historic Minnesota Food Cooperative Wars.
Unicorn Grocery is a co-operative grocery store located in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England. As a workers co-op, it is controlled democratically by its member/owners, who run the business with a flat management structure and with an equal rate of pay. Ethics form the foundations of the business, and Unicorn's Principles of Purpose are the framework within which the business operates.
The Willy Street Cooperative is a food cooperative located in Madison, Wisconsin that specializes in natural, organic and locally produced foods. The co-op offers products from over 180 local farmers and vendors. The cooperative is owned by over 31,000 equity-owning members.
A bicycle cooperative can take the many forms of the cooperative model. These often include co-ops composed of businesses to achieve economies of scale, co-ops managed by those who work at the business, and bicycle co-ops owned and managed by the cyclists that use their services. To date, many bicycle co-ops have taken the form of community bike shops and cooperatives organized to give the local bike shop national scale and buying power.
Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL), operating as Co-op, is a co-operative federation providing procurement and distribution to member co-operatives in Western Canada. It was established in 1944 after a series of amalgamations of smaller cooperatives, starting in Saskatchewan, including the Saskatchewan Co-operative Wholesale Society and a fuel production and distribution co-op, the Consumers’ Co-operative Refinery Limited. Federated had expanded to Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia by 1970. Federated Co-operatives is owned by about 160 member co-operatives across the region. Some are large co-operatives, such as Saskatoon Co-op and Calgary Co-op, while others are small co-ops based in small towns, such as Abernethy Co-op.
Citizens Co-op was a food cooperative, or a community owned market located in Gainesville, Florida. It closed in 2016 due to financial issues.
Revolver Co-operative, trading under the brand Revolver World, is a cooperative based in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom that imports and markets Fairtrade-certified coffee and organic cotton goods. It is a sister organisation to Revolver Music.
Quay Co-operative (Cork) Limited, trading as Quay Co-op, is a worker cooperative operating a number of organic, vegetarian wholefoods shops, coffee docks and a restaurant in Cork City and County Cork.
