Consumer co-ops allow members to pool their buying power to purchase goods or services as one entity. This often gives them more power to negotiate stronger terms and pricing. Consumer co-ops are often grouped by the type of goods or services they purchase.
Types of Consumer Co-ops
Grocery Co-op
One of the most popular and well known examples of a consumer coop in the United States is the grocery coop. Grocery coops are a type of buying club consumer cooperative. They organize bulk purchases of food to then be purchased by members and/or non-members.
A grocery cooperative could buy organic locally sourced food in bulk or at wholesale prices, then sell to members of the cooperative at a lower cost, than say, buying from a private grocery store. In smaller consumer cooperatives, members often volunteer to run the cooperative, and are governed by a one member one vote system. Larger consumer cooperative have employees, and members usually vote for a board to run the enterprise.
Some consumer cooperatives sell only to members, and others are open to the public.
Housing Co-op
Housing cooperatives are a type of cooperative in which people live, own, and manage the building, house, or apartment. Instead of renting from a landlord, the individuals living in the cooperative all own a share of the building and have a say in how it is run.
When you want to live in a housing cooperative, you usually have to buy a share of the building, which can be expensive. But once you own a share, you usually only have to pay a monthly fee, like rent, to cover things like maintenance, repairs, and utilities.
Since everyone who lives in the cooperative owns a share, they all have a say in how the building is managed. They can vote on things like who the managers are, how the money is spent, and what rules everyone has to follow.
Purchasing Cooperatives
Purchasing cooperatives are made up of individuals and groups of businesses that wish to jointly purchase services or supplies. A purchasing cooperative helps its members lower their operating costs and in turn stay competitive with big-box stores on the retail prices for their goods or services. Ace Hardware, for example, is a cooperative of independent hardware stores that pool their buying power to purchase inventory. Another example is CCA Global Partners, one of the largest cooperatives in the United States. CCA Global Partners organizes independent businesses to pool resources for buying, marketing, insurance, and financing in industries including flooring, mortgage banking, lighting, and bicycles.
Financial Cooperatives
A credit union is a cooperative bank that is owned and managed by its members, all of whom have accounts in the bank.
In the United States, credit unions are not-for-profit organizations that exist to serve their members, rather than to maximize corporate profits. Membership eligibility may be based on living or working in a geographical location, being a member or an employee of a select organization (e.g. a profession, business, labor union, advocacy organization, or church), or being a relative of an existing member. Like banks, credit unions accept deposits and make loans. But as member-owned institutions, credit unions focus on providing a safe place to save and borrow at reasonable rates. Unlike banks, credit unions return surplus income to their members in the form of dividends.
Credit unions may come together to form a cooperative federation (e.g. a credit union league, a credit union central, or a corporate credit union) for support, lobbying, financial services, and running for-profit businesses like ATM networks and credit card processing.
Rural Electric Cooperatives
Rural Electric Cooperatives are consumer-owned utilities that generate and distribute power to areas of typically low population density. Each rural electric cooperative (REC) customer is a member-owner, and membership is a requirement of all customers. Since most RECs operate as monopolies, consumers must become cooperative members if they wish to purchase electricity. In some cases RECs will sell power to non-members. Members elect a board of directors from among the membership on a one-member/one-vote basis. Comparatively Investor-owned utilities (IOUs) (the opposite of the cooperative model mentioned above) have not done a good job of providing electricity to rural areas. This is because it would cost a lot of money to build the necessary infrastructure, but the return on investment would not be very high. So, many rural areas have been neglected by IOUs.
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Marketing Co-ops
Marketing cooperatives are comprised of individual goods or service providers who collaborate to collectively market and sell their products, all while maintaining their independent ownership
Social Co-ops
Social Co-ops Social co-ops essentially provide a space for informal sharing of good and services to its own members rather than the public or non-members
Worker-owned Co-ops
Worker-owned cooperatives deliver goods or services to the public as one member-owned entity. There are many different forms of worker-owned coops, which are generally based
