WHY CO-OP?

The underlying reason to form a co-op is similar to the motivation to form any new business. Owners evaluate the feasibility, the risk, and potential returns resulting from the business. An investor-oriented firm seeks out the greatest growth potential, profitability, and return on investment.

Individuals form cooperatives to address a problem shared by all that can only be solved through working together. Cooperatives are mutual help associations by which members contribute their efforts and resources for the good of the common welfare. Member-owners of cooperatives forming the enterprise seek a set of returns including services, access, favorable prices, user-control, and return on capital.

A cooperative’s purpose is to provide a solution to the economic, cultural, and social needs of its member-owners. They are formed to achieve an economic goal in the form of acquiring goods or services for member-owners. Cooperatives may be formed to fight monopolies, corruption, exploitation, and marginalization that can only be achieved through group action. A cooperative can serve as a middleman in trade and commerce. By combining with one another through a cooperative, people personal benefits and balance of power through economies of scale that otherwise would not be achieved.

Cooperatives provide a unique link to communities in that their member-owners are usually concentrated in a specific area. The social and economic benefits flowing from the cooperative can from the cooperative into the community in terms of building leadership, ripple effects of business activity, and benevolence of the organization.