October is National Co-op Month

Why Co-op?

 Each October, cooperatives join together to celebrate National Co-op Month.

 National Co-op Month is an annual opportunity to raise awareness of a trusted, proven way to do business and build communities.

 The history of cooperatives extends back to the orgins of the United States, influencing the character, economics and the social and political life of our nation.

 In fact, the initial structured cooperative business in the United States was the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire, a mutual fire insurance company established in 1752.   

 This association’s reputation is likely based on two factors. First, Benjamin Franklin was the organizer. Second, the business has been conducted so efficiently over the years that it is still in operation.

 Today, coopertives are governed by the Rochdale Principles— a set of ideals for the operation of cooperatives that were first set out in 1844 by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England.  

 These principles have formed the basis for the operation of cooperatives.

Rochdale Principles

 • Open membership. Anyone can join.

 • Democratic control.One member, one vote.

 • Limited return on invested capital.

 • Patronage refunds in proportion to each member’s volume of business.

 • Sales at competitive prices

 • Political and religious neutrality.

 • Continuing cooperative education program

 • Continuous expansion.

Thanks to the Rochdale Principles, many cooperatives have improved the lives of those that participate in them, by providing goods and services their members need. Each cooperative is owned and democratically controlled by the people who use its services.

In the United States, historically there are three basic categories of private business firms: individually owned, partnerships and corporations.

Cooperatives are a type of corporation. Because a cooperative is owned and controlled by the people who use its services, the various persons affiliated with a cooperative must work even more closely together than in a non-cooperative firm.

Customer service and satisfaction are the driving forces behind a cooperative, not maximizing bottom-line return to investors. These take on a highly personal tone when the owners and directors, in their role as users, have regular contact with management and staff.

Many cooperatives, especially local associations, are too small to gather the resources needed to provide all the services their members want. By working with other cooperatives–through federated cooperatives, joint ventures, marketing agencies in common, and informal networks–they pool personnel and other assets to provide such services and programs on a collaborative basis at lower cost.

This permits members of local cooperatives to participate in owning and managing fertilizer plants, food manufacturing facilities, power plants, national financial institutions, wholesale grocery and hardware distribution programs, and so forth. Benefits flow back through the local cooperatives to the individual members.

These principles and practices have survived and flourished through 150 years of continuous evolution in the business world. They remain the foundation that supports the distinctive cooperative method of doing business.

Cooperatives are successfully operating in almost every sector of American industry. However, the cooperative industry has never developed a simply unified message that communicates the value package and cuts across all types of cooperatives. The local food movement has successfully used the message “Know your Farmer, Know your Food.” Agricultural cooperatives might be able to reduce their communications challenges if they had a simple unified message and if RECs, Farm Credit Banks, credit unions, telephone cooperatives and cooperative food stores were echoing the same message.

Local retailers pass cooperative savings onto hometown shoppers

There are far more cooperatives than you might expect. Aside from the usual agricultural co-ops like CenDak Cooperative and Fessenden Co-op, you can find others, right here in the neighborhood.

NAPA and Do-It-Best are both cooperatives, and are owned and managed locally by Todd and Renae Duchscherer.

The two began as retailers in 1993 and have diligently supplied the residents of Eddy County with quality made and affordably priced products.

Todd Duchscherer explains that store owners gain purchasing benefits, effectively passing their savings on to customers.

Patrons who may be in need of an outdated autocrat benefit from this buying power.

For example, if I need an A/C belt for my 2000 Mazda Protege, the folks at NAPA can order it from their warehouse in Minnesota. The result is a quality product at a discounted price.

In addition, overnight shipping is available as NAPA received a truck daily from the warehouse. Do-It-Best operates in a similar fashion, giving customers access to lawn and hardware products. Todd notes that the truck for Do-It-Best arrives weekly rather than daily like at NAPA.

The National Automotive Parts Association was founded in 1925, and is an American retailers' cooperative distributing automotive replacement parts. The store is located on Highway 281 in New Rockford. Do-It-Best Corp., is a member-owned hardware, lumber, and building materials cooperative based in Fort Wayne, Ind. The New Rockford store location is downtown.