History of Co-ops

Community Food Co-op, Bozeman, MT, 1984

Written by Karen Zimbelman, Development Director for National Co+op Grocers. Shared with permission from grocery.coop. Find recipes and articles about your food and where it comes from at grocery.coop.

Early Co-op Origins

In early human societies, people learned to cooperate and work together to increase their success in hunting, fishing, gathering foods, building shelter, and meeting other individual and group needs. Historians have found evidence of cooperation among peoples in early Greece, Egypt, Rome, and Babylon, among Native American and African tribes, and between many other groups.

Early agriculture would have been impossible without mutual aid among farmers. They relied on one another to defend land, harvest crops, build barns and storage buildings, and share equipment. These examples of informal cooperation—of working together—were the precursors to the cooperative form of business.

The First Cooperatives

The earliest cooperatives appeared in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, during the Industrial Revolution. As people moved from farms into the growing cities, they had to rely on stores to feed their families because they could no longer grow their own food. Working people had very little control over the quality of their food or living conditions. Those with money gained more and more power over those without. Early co-ops were set up as a way to protect the interests of the less powerful members of society—workers, consumers, farmers, and producers.

In England consumers were frustrated by the abuses of store owners, many of whom adulterated products to increase their profits. In many cases, workers’ wages were paid in company chits—credit that could be used only at the company’s stores. The average consumer had very few choices and little control.

Groups of people began experimenting with various methods of providing for their needs themselves. They decided to pool their money and purchase groceries together. When they purchased goods from a wholesale dealer and then divided them equally among themselves, they were surprised at the savings and higher quality of products they were able to obtain.

The Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society

The Rochdale Pioneers weren’t the first group to try forming a co-op, but they were the first to make their co-op succeed and endure. To avoid the mistakes made by earlier co-op societies and to help others, they developed a list of operating principles governing their organization. This list formed the basis for what are now known as the cooperative principles. Rochdale is considered the birthplace of the modern cooperative movement.

Cooperation Grows in the United States

In the United States, cooperatives of one sort or another have roots going back to colonial times. Like their counterparts in England, these early groups experimented with ways to band together and gain economic clout.

From colonial times on, most early American co-ops were formed primarily for the benefit of farmers. Some co-ops helped farmers keep their costs low through joint purchases of supplies, such as feed, equipment, tools, or seed. Some marketing co-ops helped farmers obtain the best prices for their goods by combining their crops and selling in large quantities. Others, such as grain elevators or cheese-making co-ops, provided storage or processing services.

Consumer groups in the United States began taking note of the early British consumer co-ops and the success of American farmers who worked together. They began forming consumer protection associations.

Most early American co-ops failed due to insufficient capital (money invested by the owners), poor management, and a lack of understanding of the cooperative principles by their members. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that co-ops began to have true, long-lasting success in the United States.

Consumer Co-ops Make Waves

In rural and urban areas alike, consumer co-ops were first organized to provide consumers with control and to fight the unfair practices of private and company stores. Over the years, consumer co-ops have experienced waves of growth and development, followed by periods of decline.

The first of these waves began in the early 1900s with what was called the Rochdale plan. Under this plan, consumers organized buying groups to purchase from a cooperatively owned wholesaler. The wholesaler would then gradually help these buying clubs convert their operations into retail outlets by supplying management, inventory, and capital. In 1920 there were 2,600 consumer co-ops in the United States—all but 11 were general stores—and 80 percent were in towns with populations of less than 2,500. Combined sales volume for these stores was about $260 million. Unfortunately, when the wholesalers began having problems due to rapid growth, the whole system crumbled, and most co-ops were closed within the decade.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, the “new wave” of consumer co-ops began. Born out of the ideas and philosophies of the 1960s counterculture, these stores were opened by young and idealistic members. They set up co-ops to fit their beliefs in equality, not to follow their co-op predecessors. Most of the new co-ops sold only whole, unrefined, and bulk foods. Their operating practices were diverse and experimental. Some stores had limited store hours, others were open seven days a week. Some were run by volunteers, others by fully paid staff. Some had various forms of worker self-management, others had more traditional management structures. Some paid year-end patronage refunds, others gave members a discount at the cash register.

These co-ops were pioneers in what came to be known as the natural foods industry. But not all were successful. Some failed because of their experimental structures and operating systems. Most were unable to escape the same problems that had troubled older, earlier co-ops—insufficient capital, inadequate membership support, an inability to improve operations as the natural foods industry developed, a stronger commitment to idealism than to economic success, the lack of adequate support from their wholesalers, and resistance to consolidation. But the “new wave” co-ops that survived are strong and well established. The consumer co-op movement in the United States has had mixed success—especially in contrast to consumer co-ops in Europe and Asia. But each wave of cooperative growth produces renewed enthusiasm for a time-tested idea and innovations that prove successful in the consumer marketplace.

History of the Concord Food Co-op

Written by Concord Food Co-op.

Early in 2009, the Concord Food Co-op was approached by a co-op in New London that was going into bankruptcy. In June of that year, we officially opened Kearsarge Cooperative Grocer, a Lake Sunapee-area sister store of the Co-op.

During the Spring of 2015, the Co-op started a strategic partnership with Canterbury Shaker Village, utilizing the organic garden space to grow select crops for our produce department, kitchen, and other local vendors. Co-op Organic Farm Manager, Andy Messenger, has created contracts and arrangements to only grow what is needed locally instead of growing more of what is already available, so you will still find your favorite local organic farm produce on the shelves of the Co-op.

Currently, the Co-op has an active membership of over 8,000 households, and we continue to grow each day.