Australia

Coops are so powerful. I tried to get involved in our local ones however they're dying for (imo) really frustrating reasons.

Instead of leveraging their core strength, namely allowing poor people to collectively negotiate for fair prices while cutting out middle men, they are focused on everything to the max ethical hippy shit (amusingly the same busybodies pushing this also voted to make it not vegan anymore... wtf do you believe in?) so the result is they've become super bougie.

Instead of being a place where you can buy beans and rice etc at below supermarket prices while still giving the farmers a better deal it's all organic biodynamic gluten free almonds and luxury teas. Don't get me wrong, I love my fancy tea, but first and foremost it needs to be a place where you get your bulk calories/macros cheaper than the supermarket or at least comparable (obvs supermarkets loss lead on some stuff like bread you'll never match).

Also fuck me for this opinion but putting food on the table of some working class people and taking power back from supermarkets and giant farming conglomerates does more good than serving organic teas to the 50 wealthy people in the area that can afford them. Survive first, improve from a position of strength.

I need to start ditching more companies. Reminds me I also need to look into leaving commbank for a credit union.

I've been looking into various farmer direct/co-op/budget friendly options lately, but as a small household, I'm fucked. It's the same reason Costco is useless to me. I'd be buying way more than I needed and it would spoil before we could get through it.

I hate throwing out food and won't do it when so many people in the world go hungry.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Vendor Frankie Schipirra, whose family has been in the fruit and vegetable business for decades, said he's seen an influx of small informal co-ops at Paddy's Markets due to cost-of-living pressures over the last six to 12 months.

While Mr Blythe's co-operative is informal, some have set up as profit-sharing enterprises or non-profit organisations offering membership to the public.

Ms Morrison said these cooperative structures allowed people to pool their purchasing power in the face of cost-of-living pressures.

Ms Morrison adds that the purpose of a co-op is to deliver benefits back to members, rather than profit maximisation and returns to investors.

In Australia, cooperatives exist across a broad range of industries including banking, insurance, agriculture, motoring and retail.

Professor Foster says although co-ops can exert some price pressure, they won't be able to seriously challenge Coles or Woolworths given the market share, convenience and range of products the major supermarkets have.

The original article contains 1,040 words, the summary contains 152 words. Saved 85%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

The coops in my American city are usually the more expensive option than the chain grocery stores. They pay their staff fairly (because the staff own part of the business) which is great, but saving money for the consumer they do not.

I just don’t think a coop can be cheaper than a larger corporate entity that can purchase at huge bulk discounts for their many stores. Healthier? Sure. More ethical? Sure. Similar costs or cheaper? Nah.