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Co-ops At 20

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Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
April
Year
1988
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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One of Ann Arbor's best-known co-ops, People's Food Coop on Packard near State, conveys the natural food image such businesses are noted for. The Michigan Alliance of Cooperatives, held its annual meeting in Lansing on Tuesday.

CO-OPS AT 20
From goat cheese and sprouts to housing, day care, banking

By PETER LUKE

NEWS LANSING BUREAU

LANSING - Cooperatives, which 20 years ago introduced a generation to goat cheese and alfalfa sprouts, today are latching onto new markets as baby boomers settle down and raise kids.

Cooperatives were born out of the Great Depression, when people pooled their resources to buy essential services more cheaply than those offered by businesses concerned primarily with the bottom line, rather than the social good.

That remains their appeal to consumers today, according to advocates at Tuesday’s annual meeting of the Michigan Alliance of Cooperatives.

“Cooperatives tend to find niches in markets that presently aren’t being adequately served,” said National Cooperative Bank President Thomas Condit.

In the 1960s and 1970s, one such niche was in providing natural foods. During that time of increased concern over food additives and preservatives, natural foods were sold in member-owned-and-operated food co-ops.

Now, child care and affordable housing are areas in which cooperatives are filling a void, Condit said.

Nationwide, 46,000 cooperatives are owned by some 60 million members, rather than stockholders. Profits are distributed equally, not according to how many shares an investor owns. In Michigan, there are more than 1,600 cooperatives serving nearly 4 million residents.

Today’s cooperatives include urban apartment buildings, preschools, credit unions, electric and telephone concerns and health maintenance organizations.

The key for continued growth by cooperatives lies in their ability to track social and consumer needs and meet them, proponents say.

“Given the housing shortage in Michigan, there is tremendous potential here,” said Ebba Hierta, executive director of the Michigan Alliance.

There are 170 housing cooperatives in the state, with 25,000 units, which provide apartments and townhouses at a lower cost than available through conventional bank financing, Hierta said.

Employer-financed but employee-owned day-care centers also are on the rise, given the problems dual-income parents are having in locating adequate child care, said Nancy Kantola of the National Cooperative Business Association.

Hierta said there are now more than 350 preschool cooperatives in Michigan serving more than 14,000 families.

The largest network of cooperatives includes credit unions, which in Michigan have more than 3 million members. Nationwide, credit union members number 55 million.

Condit said if credit unions are to remain competitive with banks and thrift institutions, they must offer a wider array of investment options for adults thinking of retirement.