Hey there!
So I’m finally moving to Calgary within a month (yayy). I kinda want to support co-operatives here. Of course, I’m aware of the existence of Calgary Coop. Aside from that, do you know any cool cooperatives whose products/services u use?
Any good credit unions? I heard servus was good. Are there any smaller shops/cafes which are some sort of cooperative? Any mentions would be appreciated! :)
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I’m clueless, but commenting because I’m curious, and also: Welcome to Calgary! Bienvenue au Calgary! Bonvenon al Kalgario! Etc.
Awww thank u so much!!! Really excited to get there!
The only thing cooperative about Calgary Coop is it’s name. Its about as cooperative as I am when it comes to sharing a bag of chips on the couch on a Saturday night.
Coops don’t really exist in true coop nature anymore. Its like everything else, they get a few peckers involved and they suddenly start looking like for profit organizations.
There are some credit unions, but they very much act like banks, and aren’t really any different than other banks. There was a big merger that just happened with First Calgary and ConnectFirst (see what I mean?), and Servus and Connectfirst have also merged. Its pretty hard to call them an actual credit union at this point, at least in the traditional sense.
You are ten years too late for MEC. Its also a for-profit corporation now, thanks to some really bad leadership. I think you can see the trend at this point.
I don’t understand. You can still vote for Calgary Coop’s Board of Directors, get rebates and stuff like that, no? Same with the credit unions you mentioned, right? I don’t mean to challenge your position of course- I just want to understand the problem better.
I also see that you dislike the merger between the two credit unions. Why’s that bad? Won’t it be better to have a larger democratic bank?
A democratic bank? It’s a monopoly in Calgary, one “credit union” owns them all now. Modern day credit unions simply exploit tax advantages, they aren’t this touchy feeling cooperative thing anymore. They are very much for profit in all but name and are as rotten as the other banks. Should get your hands on the executive payroll.
As for Calgary Coop, yes you get to elect the board. They play favourites, and you can have your choice between Corporate Bob, Corporate John or Corporate Margaret. You can run, but they play favourites and heavily promote their choices of the ideal candidates, which of course are slightly different versions of themselves. They’ve made some pretty controversial choices the last 5 or 6 years too. They aren’t even part of the Federation Coop anymore, Calgary Coop is just branding now. They overprice everything and then offer you the so called rebate. Its a joke.
Woah, that sounds depressing. How did this happen though? Weren’t the members not active enough throughout the years to prevent this state of affairs?
I really liked the co-op by my house. So sad that they closed it. I found out a bit overpriced but there was some stuff you couldn’t get anywhere else. Also, I got to see the back rooms of a number of stores over the years, and that Co-op (compared to a number of other grocery stores) was by far the cleanest and tidiest.