11 December 2024
James Darling’s A Proposal to Transform Co-op Membership for the Internet Age is great. My favourite bits - local, community produce:
Imagine walking into your local Co-op and knowing it’s truly your store — not just because you shop there, but because you’re one of 2,475 members who actually own it. Picture seeing products on the shelves made by your neighbors — Audrey’s homemade cakes that you can only get at this specific store, or Jim’s locally roasted coffee that’s become a neighborhood favorite.
Data and financial transparency:
Perhaps the most radical proposal: complete financial transparency with members through an easy-to-use app. While other retailers guard their performance data closely, the Co-op could share store performance openly with its member-owners. See how your store compares to others, track community investment, and understand the real impact of your membership. This would be a powerful demonstration of what makes a co-operative fundamentally different from its competitors.
One-click affiliation:
Any member could apply to affiliate their local group with the store — whether it’s a walking club, food bank, or tenant association. The Co-op would provide the digital infrastructure to help these groups organise, with seamless joining built in. Want to volunteer for a local litter-picking? Just tap your membership card to share your details, via the co-operative, with the organiser. Change your mind? Use the co-op app to unsubscribe and remove your details. […] The Co-op would act as a trusted broker of community data, making it easier for groups to organise while protecting everyone’s privacy.
Working there at a similar time to James, my sense was that the Co-op saw membership largely through the lenses of the historic “divi” and modern loyalty cards, and this framed a lot of the thinking. Membership connects to transactions in stores. Yes, it does, but it could have been more.
My own take on it over a zillion newsletters was that the twin proximities of co-operation and geography are unique and special. But what if the Co-op disconnected membership from the store to make membership go further locally? A looser, more everyday, federated membership might have been amazing. The last thing I did on membership was this tiny story: Could membership be much more radical?
It is quite hard to make large organisations change things a lot, because there’s so much invested in business as usual, the incentives point in the wrong direction, and the uncertainties seem large and scary. Yeah yeah, change is hard. But you try.