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This article is "OK", but their example is a 4 person co-op, which makes you think that all co-ops like the food co-ops you see in college towns. There are act

by bcx 11y ago

This article is "OK", but their example is a 4 person co-op, which makes you think that all co-ops like the food co-ops you see in college towns. There are actually multiple forms of co-ops. Typically capital does come from the members (whether they be companies or individuals), but it could also come in as debt i.e. from a bank. For example: Sunkist is producer co-op owned by citrus growers to vertically integrate. http://www.sunkist.com/about/cooperative.aspx http://www.sunkist.com/about/cooperative.aspx REI is consumer co-op owned by the shoppers of the store (though arguably managed much like a normal corporation): (And did over $2.2 billion in sales for 2014) http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/04/reis-co-op-business-model-produces-record-results/ http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/04/reis-co-op-business-mode... http://www.seattleweekly.com/2003-06-18/news/who-owns-rei/ http://www.seattleweekly.com/2003-06-18/news/who-owns-rei/ http://www.rei.com/about-rei/financial-information.html http://www.rei.com/about-rei/financial-information.html Ace Hardware is a retailer-owned cooperative. Where the franchise board is owned by the member franchises. https://www.myace.com/invest/about-ace https://www.myace.com/invest/about-ace

jasode 11y ago
>Ace Hardware is a retailer-owned cooperative. Where the franchise board is owned by the member franchises. The Ace Hardware franchise requires ~$1 million[1] in startup costs to open a store and be part of the "co-op". Most employees don't have that kind of money and they don't have the collateral to secure a $1 million loan from the bank. When the ticket for admission into the "co-op" costs $1 million, that's not the type of co-op people are discussing. The REI stores co-op is also not a good example of what workers are thinking about. REI is not employee-owned. I think we need to level-set. When threads pop up about cooperatives, the driving sentiment is from typical workers/employees who don't like the corporate ownership structure (founder has equity worth millions/billions, and/or CEO is drawing $500,000+ salary, etc). Therefore, the co-op structure where all employees are also the owners and share the profits looks very attractive. The problem is it will end up being a modest business. E.g. a cooperative of IT consultants. The IT Consultants Co-Op don't need members to contribute $1 million each to capitalize the business; they just start billing clients right away. They can pool their modest funds from their hourly billings to buy the shared office a laser printer and a coffee machine. It would be great if a cutting edge big company (like Google, Amazon, or SpaceX) with ambitious and very expensive goals (driverless cars, drone delivery, Mars colony) could be "employee-owned" but it can't. Employees don't have the money. [1] http://www.franchisechatter.com/2013/08/31/franchise-costs-2013-detailed-estimates-of-ace-hardware-franchise-costs-2013-fdd/ http://www.franchisechatter.com/2013/08/31/franchise-costs-2...
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  See my comment and article about Publix. It can happen but requires management to have that vision to begin with. Thing is, most have never heard of this stuff working and wouldn't even consider it. Past that, there's the whole angle of "let's get rich owning our own company and selling out our workers later." But, get word out about the successes, then we might get more of them. And maybe I'll be lucky enough to work for one. :)
michaelchisari 11y ago
Mondragon Corporation has 75,000 workers and yearly revenues of $13b a year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation

by bcx 11y ago

jasode 11y ago

>Ace Hardware is a retailer-owned cooperative. Where the franchise board is owned by the member franchises. The Ace Hardware franchise requires ~$1 million[1] in startup costs to open a store and be part of the "co-op". Most employees don't have that kind of money and they don't have the collateral to secure a $1 million loan from the bank. When the ticket for admission into the "co-op" costs $1 million, that's not the type of co-op people are discussing. The REI stores co-op is also not a good example of what workers are thinking about. REI is not employee-owned. I think we need to level-set. When threads pop up about cooperatives, the driving sentiment is from typical workers/employees who don't like the corporate ownership structure (founder has equity worth millions/billions, and/or CEO is drawing $500,000+ salary, etc). Therefore, the co-op structure where all employees are also the owners and share the profits looks very attractive. The problem is it will end up being a modest business. E.g. a cooperative of IT consultants. The IT Consultants Co-Op don't need members to contribute $1 million each to capitalize the business; they just start billing clients right away. They can pool their modest funds from their hourly billings to buy the shared office a laser printer and a coffee machine. It would be great if a cutting edge big company (like Google, Amazon, or SpaceX) with ambitious and very expensive goals (driverless cars, drone delivery, Mars colony) could be "employee-owned" but it can't. Employees don't have the money. [1] http://www.franchisechatter.com/2013/08/31/franchise-costs-2013-detailed-estimates-of-ace-hardware-franchise-costs-2013-fdd/ http://www.franchisechatter.com/2013/08/31/franchise-costs-2...

nickpsecurity 11y ago
See my comment and article about Publix. It can happen but requires management to have that vision to begin with. Thing is, most have never heard of this stuff working and wouldn't even consider it. Past that, there's the whole angle of "let's get rich owning our own company and selling out our workers later." But, get word out about the successes, then we might get more of them. And maybe I'll be lucky enough to work for one. :)

michaelchisari 11y ago

Mondragon Corporation has 75,000 workers and yearly revenues of $13b a year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation