What is a co-op?
A co-op is a non-profit organization composed of a group of individuals (or organizations) formed for their mutual benefit, generally financial. (See Wikipedia for more details.)
They typically are democratic, volunteer associations. Being created for a specific public benefit, they are non-profit and return any profits back to the members/owners.
They include credit unions, mutual insurance companies, housing co-ops, rural electric power co-ops, consumer goods co-ops (like REI), distribution coops (like Ace Hardware) and producer co-ops (like Sunkist, Land’O Lakes).
Sources: coopdirectory.org and a Maine Biz story, March 2014, and a current directory from Cooperative Maine.
MaineBiz wrote an article comparing Co-Ops to conventional grocery stores. One comparison chart stands out:
Maine has a growing number of co-ops, 158 as of today according to http://maine.find.coop/
and 16 specifically food-based co-ops:
| Barrels Community Market | Waterville | barrelsmarket.com |
| Belfast Co-op | Belfast | belfast.coop |
| Blue Hill Co-op Community Market & Café | Blue Hill | bluehill.coop |
| Eat Local Eastport Co-op | Eastport | eatlocaleastport.com |
| Fare Share Market | Norway | faresharecoop.org |
| Gardiner Food Co-op | Gardiner | klfi.org/the-gardiner-food-co-op |
| Good Tern Natural Foods Co-op | Rockland | goodtern.com |
| Island Employee Cooperative | Deer Isle, Stonington | burntcove.com |
| Market Street Co-op | Fort Kent | marketstreetcoop.net |
| Marsh River Cooperative | Brooks | marshrivercoop.org |
| Portland Food Co-op | Portland | portlandfood.coop |
| Rising Tide Community Market | Damariscotta | risingtide.coop |
| Rosemont Market & Bakery | Portland | rosemontmarket.com/ |
| Royal River Natural Foods | Freeport | rrnf.com/ |
| Stone Soup Artisans | Saco | stonesoupartisans.com |
| The County Co-op and Farm Store | Houlton | fb.me/TheCountyCoopandFarmStore |
We here at Make/Grow Local aim to serve all the co-ops in Maine and beyond!
Let us know if any are missing from this list. Updated March 1, 2017