> If you can't run a successful co-op in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where can you? In the UK we have two large grocery co-op chains. Waitrose is a worker owned

> If you can't run a successful co-op in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where can you? In the UK we have two large grocery co-op chains. Waitrose is a worker owned co-op filling the Whole Foods niche while The Co-op is a consumer owned co-op with a mix of smaller grocery stores and medium sized supermarkets. In the US I think REI is the largest retail co-op, though we have at least one small food co-op in SF. Once they reach a certain size they’re not all that different from regular public companies. They’re perhaps more common in financial services with credit unions and mutual funds like Vanguard having customer owned structures. The U.K. used to have building societies (equivalent to US credit unions) but almost all turned into banks giving their members shares in the 80s and 90s.