Store Forums

When the Rochdale Pioneers set up their co-op shop in 1844, it was never envisaged that the society would run more than one - they expected that new shops would be set up by new co-operatives. As it happened, it was found to be more efficient for the same co-op to operate a chain of shops throughout the town. 160 years later, and we have one large national society (the Co-op Group), lots of large regional societies (United, East of England, Midcounties etc.), and a few small societies as well, such as Wooldale and Tamworth.

However, this means that even if a large society is split into areas, such as the Co-op Group which has 49 area committees, there are an awful lot of co-op shops that do not get visited on a regular basis by an elected member of the co-op. In the case of the Cambridge and East Anglia area, the majority of the committee live in Cambridge, ensuring that any Co-op there is likely to have regular visits simply due to day-to-day shopping trips. But despite both formal and informal visits made by the committee it is inevitable that the committee's knowledge of issues relating to other co-op shops with no elected member living nearby will be limited.

This is where an active membership can pay dividends! A regular customer of a shop will be far more aware of quirks, room for improvement and potential sources of competition than will an elected member who only drops in once a year or so. Of course, contact with any committee member (via the medium of the regional office, a members' meeting or this blog) will ensure that the issue gets raised, but I personally think that given high enough levels of customer involvement, store forums might be a great idea.

A store forum just means a group of regular members who are customers at the store who meet occasionally to raise concerns or points regarding the store. The report of the meeting can then be passed to the area committee for consideration of the issues raised. As well as providing a mechanism for information and views to be channeled to the elected members from the wider membership, store forums might help build a sense of community between members.

I see no reason why a group of interested members could not informally start their own store forum along the above lines, although it may be difficult to attract enough people to make it worthwhile. Email me if you would like more information or help.