Our Powerful Tip
printer-friendly version
Wednesday, October 1, 2003
October is National Cooperative Month!
- Purchasing co-ops are increasingly becoming the solution for small, independent business owners who are seeking new tools to keep costs down and service up.
- Cooperatives are owned and controlled by the people who buy their goods and use their services − their members − and any surplus revenues are returned to those member-owners. No other business form has this characteristic.
- Co-op members directly and democratically elect their board of directors from within the membership.
- Cooperatives are businesses that, by their very nature, are directly accountable to their member-owners. They are structured to ensure that the business serves only the best interests of its members.
- Members of cooperatives, not Wall Street investors, enjoy the benefits of co-op success.
- More than 48,000 cooperatives do business in both rural and urban America. They include credit unions, childcare co-ops, food co-ops, farmer-owned cooperatives, electricity and telecommunications cooperatives, housing co-ops and many others.
- Four in ten Americans, or 120 million people, are members of cooperatives.