Food Co-ops: Good Food and Good Prices

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Eventually, though-when Timmerman made a unilateral decision to buy a new building for the co-op-the store's members became disgruntled, elected a governing board, and gained full democratic control. This changeover involved incorporating, writing by-laws, straightening out the financial records, hiring a new manager . . . and, finally-after three torturous "monster meetings"-facing the need for a mandatory work requirement.

"The board passed the work policy just in time," says Norman Weiss, the co-op's current manager. "We'd recently gone through a terrible summer slump and had less than $1,000 in the bank. We started that fall with just a few short worker slots, but now we use 44 man-hours of nonpaid help in the store-for everything from cutting meat to sawing floor boards-every day!"

And just about the most impressive aspect of the Weaver's Way operation is the success of its work program. Every one of the store's 1,500 members shares the labor! Paid employees still tally the books, run the cash register, manage the traffic, and make 4:00 a.m. fresh produce runs each morning, but the input from the "cooperators" (these folks don't call themselves "volunteers") is crucial to the store's success.

Weaver's accomplishes this democratization of labor with a simple yet effective record system. If a person hasn't put in the required time (six hours a year for single adults) by the second month of his or her assigned three-month cycle, a green star is put on that member's shopping ledger card. The cashier then sees to it that the laggard signs up for work and adds a second ("you've been told") green star to the ledger sheet. If the reluctant co-oper then fails to help at the agreed upon time, the green stars are replaced by a red one and the nonlaborer can't shop . . . until he or she does work.

Weaver's Way has become democratic in other ways, too. In fact, the shoppers' organization has fully incorporated all four principles (open 'membership, one-member-one-vote, limited interest on investment shares, and profits redistributed to members) of their namesake group . . . the original consumers' cooperative of weavers in Rochdale, England. At the end of the year, the store's profits are redistributed to the members through a patronage rebate system, and the membership as a whole decides whether to take the entire rebate as cash or reinvest a percentage into the coop.

All in all, the organization has evolved-in just seven years-from a loosely run bargain hunter's club to 'a sophisticated food store that consciously embodies the principles of cooperation. "The whole thing for me is consumer control," Norman says. "Ideally, the people who use things will someday work their way back so that they control the entire production industry."

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