October – National Cooperative Month
Did you know that October is National Cooperative Month?
And that Petoskey has been home to a successful example of a cooperative for more than 50 years?
A cooperative, or co-op for short, simply stated is any business or organization that is owned or controlled by its members who use its goods or services. Members have a voice in how the business or organization is run, and they often get a share of the profits or earnings.
The Cooperative Development Institute recognizes 6 different types of co-ops in the United States:
- Producer Cooperatives
- Worker Cooperatives
- Consumer Cooperatives
- Credit Unions
- Retail or Purchasing Cooperatives
- Social Cooperatives
In this blog, I will be discussing consumer co-ops, those that are owned by the people who purchase goods or services from the co-op. These co-ops can provide nearly anything people want – from groceries to electricity to healthcare. Consumer co-ops can be very small – a food buying club in a rural village – or very large like a multi-million-dollar supermarket in a big city.
Robert Owen, a Welsh socialist and philanthropist, is widely considered the father of the cooperative movement. In the early 1800’s he had some “radical ideas” about how workers and people should be treated. In 1817, he came up with the concept of “8 hours labor, 8 hours recreation, and 8 hours rest” as a way to combat the up to 16-hour workdays that were taking place in many factories. Owen believed that happy workers would be more productive workers. As a business owner of mills, he offered to his employees what no other factories did at the time. Along with the shortened workday, he abolished child labor, provided housing and education to his employees, and he offered healthcare. All of this was unheard of at the time, and his model proved to be quite effective as his mills were very successful and his employees were more skilled and satisfied than those working at similar places.
In Petoskey, we are fortunate to have Grain Train Natural Foods Market in our town, which is a perfect example of a consumer co-op. Petoskey’s Grain Train has been around since 1971 in various locations, and it has been functioning as a successful co-op since the beginning. It offers local (as well as not so local) organic food, beverages, beer, wine, beauty products, supplements, and other items to help you live a healthy lifestyle, as well as an extensive grab and go deli section when you want a quick, nutritious meal.
For $200, you can become a lifetime Grain Train owner. And, although you do not have to be an owner to shop at Grain Train, there are benefits to ownership like discounts, rebates, special sales, voting privileges and more. Because of the success of Grain Train in downtown Petoskey, in 2014 they opened a second location in downtown Boyne City to better serve northern Michigan. Both locations are now open year-round to serve the community and visitors to the north.
Whether you are new to Petoskey, just passing through, or a longtime resident, make it a point to stop into Grain Train this October to experience a co-op in action. I recommend their bean burritos for a hot, quick, delicious meal on the go.
