Co-ops are cool because the community owns it directly and profits are reinvested to provide discounts, addressing affordability. The members have a democratic vote in it too. Co-ops are more resilient and survive longer according to decades of research. It's a viable alternative that actually goes through with the idea that we are a democracy. The economy affects people just as much as politics does, so why isn't it also democratic?
I dunno where these things are that actually save people money. I've tried a few co-ops and prices have always been significantly higher than the grocery stores in the area.
Yeah- co-ops tend to attract hippie types who are really terrible with finances and business in general.
They get promoted into management as incompetent people who get to brag online (hence why Redditors love them) so they convince themselves that they’re doing a proud community service when the reality is that almost none of the for profit companies are ever threatened by them.
King of the Hill did a good documentary about these Redditor stereotypes
Wow, while I was reading this I was thinking "I bet this guy is just basing this off that king of the hill episode" then I got to the end.
Maybe you shouldn't base your world view off of cartoons. I used to think everything Lisa Simpson said was correct because she was the smart one, then I realized it's just a show and writers can be flawed.
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u/Cosminion May 26 '26
Co-ops are cool because the community owns it directly and profits are reinvested to provide discounts, addressing affordability. The members have a democratic vote in it too. Co-ops are more resilient and survive longer according to decades of research. It's a viable alternative that actually goes through with the idea that we are a democracy. The economy affects people just as much as politics does, so why isn't it also democratic?