Coops pay out a patronage dividend to members. Coop accounting is a wierd and special beast, and I won't claim any expertise. Typically a member pays something

Coops pay out a patronage dividend to members. Coop accounting is a wierd and special beast, and I won't claim any expertise. Typically a member pays something to belong, that is how ag coops raise some of their capital, for instance. In the REI case, the dividend amounts to a discount on purchases for members. Others pay the full freight. Same goes for ag coops, but the stakes are much larger and the accounting more complicated. There is no reason other businesses can't be structured as coops, but trying to find someone who understands the structure probably requires visiting a land grant university in fly-over land and looking up the business school.