Cooperative Living July 2014 - 25

IT'S YOUR BUSINESS
Got A Problem?
Chances Are There's a Co-op Solution
B
by Adam Schwartz
ack in the early 1930s, our nation's
rural areas had a problem. They did
not have access to electricity, so a
group of neighbors and friends set out to
form a cooperative solution. At the same
time, folks in 1,000 other rural communities
throughout the United States were doing the
same thing, creating rural electric cooperatives.
Interestingly, folks in urban areas also
formed co-ops ― not electric or farm co-ops,
but credit unions and housing co-ops.
Cooperatives of all forms get started
when the " market " fails to offer a good or
service or does so at prices few people can
afford. So, back in the time of the Great
Depression, when banks did not have much
interest in extending credit to people of modest
means, people got together with their
friends and neighbors, collected a $5 membership
fee (and remember in the 1930s,
five bucks was real money) and formed
more than 23,000 credit unions. They
solved their problem with a cooperative solution.
Today, mostly due to mergers between
credit unions, there are about 6,800 credit
unions with nearly 100 million members.
Meanwhile, in New York City, folks
needed to find safe and affordable housing.
So, what was the answer? Form a housing
co-op. And they did by the hundreds. Today,
there are more than 3,000 housing co-ops
nationwide. While most are located in
urban areas, they are a growing solution in
rural areas, and a number of mobile home
parks are being converted to cooperative
ownership.
Is reliable child care a concern? There
are more than 1,000 pre-school cooperatives
operating in the U.S. While some
require parents to volunteer a certain number
of hours per month, these cooperatives
have been a great solution for the vast
majority of families when both parents need
to work outside the home.
On the other end of the spectrum, there
are even co-ops covering funeral needs. By
joining the co-op, which has pre-negotiated
the price of the funeral based on your preferences,
consumers can save up to 40 percent
off the average cost of a funeral and
burial. From cradle to grave, co-ops have
you covered.
Perhaps you own a small business and
are looking to lower the cost of the goods
you sell, or maybe you are one of 50,000
small-business owners who is a member of a
purchasing cooperative. Through cooperatives,
small locally owned businesses are
able to compete against larger retailers like
Walmart and Home Depot. Dollars that are
spent locally stay in the community six times
longer than dollars spent at stores owned
outside the community, according to the U.S.
Small Business Administration.
So, what do all these businesses have
in common? Local people coming together
to solve a problem with a cooperative
solution. One of the reasons co-ops are popular
in so many different industries is that
they answer the question, " What's in it for
me? " and provide a solution that also serves
we, the community. So the next time your
area is facing a problem, think cooperatively
and chances are, there will be a cooperative
solution. 
Adam Schwartz is the founder of The
Cooperative Way, a consulting firm that helps
co-ops succeed. He is an author, speaker and
member-owner of the CDS Consulting Co-op. You
can follow him on Twitter @adamcooperative.
Cooperatives of all
forms get started
when the " market "
fails to offer a good
or service or does so
at prices few people
can afford.
July 2014/www.co-opliving.com
23
TONIVAVER/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
Cooperative Living July 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living July 2014
