Consumers' Cooperative of Berkeley

Berkeley Co-op logo, as reproduced on a belt buckle, ca 1970s

Consumers' Cooperative of Berkeley, informally known as the Berkeley Co-op, was a consumers' cooperative based in Berkeley, California which operated from 1939 to 1988,[1] when it collapsed due to internal governance disputes and bankruptcy. During its height, it was the largest cooperative of its kind in North America, with over 100,000 members, and its collapse has provoked intense discussion over how food cooperatives should be operated.[2]

The CCB evolved out of the Berkeley Buyers' Club, formed in the midst of the Great Depression on January 27, 1936, by a small group of families active in Upton Sinclair's EPIC and local Democratic Party clubs.[3] In the beginning the co-op operated out of the basement of the parsonage of a local Methodist minister in Alameda, Roy Wilson, in cooperation with another buyers' club formed seven weeks earlier in Oakland, California. In April 1937 60 families in the local clubs joined forces to open the CCB's first store at 2491 Shattuck Avenue (at Dwight Way).

By the end of 1937 the store had moved into larger premises on University Avenue, and by 1939 the co-op had grown to 225 families, with sales of $700 a week. In 1957 it was the second largest urban cooperative in the United States, with 6,000 member families, and by 1963 there were 30,000 families enrolled and several stores in operation.

During the 1960s there were a series of hotly contested elections to the co-op board, in which a politically left opposition faction represented by board member Robert Treuhaft ran its own independent slate of candidates in opposition to "official" slate. This faction held a brief-lived majority on the board in 1969. The de facto division of the co-op board into two parties continued until the end, with many issues narrowly decided on a 5–4 vote.

The co-op, which at one point was operating 12 supermarkets with $83 million in sales, began closing locations and selling off co-op property in the 1970s. The co-op's final demise in 1988 has been attributed to a number of factors, including too rapid expansion, political infighting over issues like consumer boycotts, and the board's failure to negotiate concessions from its employees' union during its decline.

The Berkeley Co-op purchased much of its inventory from National Cooperatives, a national cooperative, which used the CO-OP label, commonly seen on much of the stock at the stores.

Stores

Presidents

See also

References

  1. ↑ Berkeley Journal; Who'll Sell Tofu Puffs After Co-ops Are Gone?, by Katherine Bishop, Monday, June 6, 1988, New York Times
  2. ↑ Berkeley: Lessons for Co-op Leaders, by Karen Zimbelman, January–February 1992
  3. ↑ For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, by John Curl (PM Press, 2009), p. 192–203. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Stormy Weather in California", Dave Gutknecht, Cooperative Grocer Network, 1986
  5. ↑ "Development Directions", Dave Gutknecht, Cooperative Grocer Network, 1988
  6. ↑ "Development Directions - Part Two", Dave Gutknecht, Cooperative Grocer Network, 1988

External links

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