The outsider consumer co-operative: lessons from the Community Co-operative Store (Nuriootpa), 1944–2010

Abstract

Current models of co-operative survival need to be modified to consider those national experiences where consumer co-operatives become ‘outsider co-operatives’; they cannot rely on a broader co-operative movement or network. The Nuriootpa Co-operative is a prime example of such a co-op. Its ability to deal with issues of capitalisation, ideological appeal and relationships with the local community has historically been central to the survival and growth of this Australian Rochdale co-operative. However, without the support of a broader movement or network, its adoption of the franchising model has proved to be a key to the success of this co-operative.

Keywords::

• Consumer Co-operatives
• Barossa
• Rochdale
• Community
• Franchising

Notes

1. Ekberg, “Organization,” 234.

2. Zamagni, “A World of Variation,” 72–73.

3. Balnave and Patmore, “Practical Utopians”; Fairbairn, “The Rise and Fall,” 296–297.

4. http://www.alles.coop/ (accessed 12 September 2014).

5. http://stories.coop/stories/we-are-the-cooperative/ (accessed 29 January 2015).

6. Balnave and Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer Co-operatives,” 986.

7. Ekberg, “Confronting Three Revolutions,” 1004–1021.

8. Ekberg, “Confronting Three Revolutions,” 1005–1015.

9. Ekberg, “Confronting Three Revolutions,” 1006, 1009–1015.

10. Menzani and Zamagni, “Co-operative Networks,” 105–106; Zamagni, “A World of Variation,” 73.

11. Pérotin, “The Performance,” 216.

12. Carr-Saunders, Sargent Florence and Peers, Consumers’ Co-operation, 120–123; Ekberg, “Confronting Three Revolutions,” 1009–1010; Gurney, Co-operative Culture, 62.

13. Robertson, “Collective Strength,” 932.

14. Balnave and Patmore, “Marketing Community,” 73–74.

15. Ekberg, “Confronting Three Revolutions,” 1006; Hallsworth and Bell, “Retail Change,” 306–311.

16. Ekberg, “Confronting Three Revolutions,” 1009–1015.

17. Ekberg, “Organization.”

18. Battilani, “How to Beat Competition,” 114–115.

19. Menzani and Zamagni, “Co-operative Networks,” 105–106, 120–121.

20. Balnave and Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer Co-operatives,” 994; Fulop and Forward, “Insights into Franchising.”

21. Ekberg, “Confronting Three Revolutions,” 1007.

22. Ekberg, “Confronting Three Revolutions,” 1007.

23. Battilani, “How to Beat Competition,” 110–112.

24. Webb and Webb, The Consumers’ Co-operative Movement, 12–13.

25. Gurney, Co-operative Culture, 65.

26. Carr-Saunders et al., Consumers’ Co-operation, 112–114.

27. Birchall, Co-op, 56; Shaw and Alexander, “British Co-operative Societies,” 74–75.

28. Carr-Saunders et al., Consumers’ Co-operation, 121.

29. Ekberg, “Confronting Three Revolutions,” 1007–1015.

30. Robertson, The Co-operative Movement, 213.

31. Balnave and Patmore, “Localism and Rochdale Co-operation,” 63–65; Robertson, “Collective Strength,” 935.

32. Balnave and Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer Co-operatives,” 987–989.

33. Ibid., 990–993.

34. Balnave and Patmore, “Practical Utopians,” 103–105; Lewis 1992, 218–219; Webber and Hoskins, What's in Store?, 29.

35. Stuart Alexander, “Australian Market.”

36. Barossa Grape & Wine Association, Submission to the Federal Treasury, 4.

37. Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 16–17, 22–23.

39. Mary Hatch, Harold Hoffman, Bert Schulz (Former Community Co-op Store Employees), interview by Greg Patmore, Nuriootpa, 16. March 2010; Symons, One Continuous Picnic, 177–179.

38. Drawn from January Community Co-op Store Committee of Management minutes (hereafter CM minutes, unless otherwise indicated all primary documents relating to the Co-op are in the possession of the Co-op). From 1990 the figures are provided by Trevor Schmidt, Company Secretary, Nuriootpa Community Co-op Store.

40. Shaw and Alexander, “British Co-operative Societies,” 65.

41. Balnave and Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer.Co-operative,” 994.

42. The Barossa and Light Herald, 2 October 1952, 9.

43. Balnave and Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer Co-operatives,” 995.

44. Ibid.

45. Balnave and Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer Co-operatives,” 995; The Barossa and Light Herald, 2 December 1965, special edition, 12.

46. CM minutes, 20.March 1974, 29 April 1976, 21 February 1979; Fuller, “A History of Community Service,” 45; The Barossa and Light Herald, 2 July 1970, 1, 20 May 1971, 8–9, 5 July 1979, 12, 3 December 1980, 15, 10 December 1980, 10.

47. H. Schultz, “History of the Nuriootpa Community Co-op Store,” unpublished manuscript, 2.

48. CM minutes, 18 October 1969, 15 December 1976, 21 February 1979, 20 August 1980, 3 March 1981, 20 January 1982, 17 February 1982, 16 June 1982; Email from Anne Cooke, the Woolworths Archivist, to Greg Patmore, 20 March 2013; Fuller, “A History of Community Service,” 45; The Barossa and Light Herald, 3 May 1979, 5.

49. The Barossa and Light Herald, 6 October 1982, 1, 6.

50. Ibid., 1

51. The Barossa and Light Herald, 6 October 1982, 6; The Leader, 28 March 1984, 19.

52. Community Co-operative Store (Nuriootpa) Ltd., 1987 Annual Report (hereafter AR), 4; CM minutes, 15 June.1966; Fuller, “A History of Community Service,” 45; Schultz, “History of the Nuriootpa Community Co-op Store,” unpublished manuscript, 3; The Leader, 4 June 1986, 15, 28 June 1986, 1, 26 November 1986, 1, 3 December 1986, 25, 4 March 1987, 4, 18 March 1987, p. 1.

53. Community Co-op Store Board of Management minutes (hereafter BM minutes), 21 February 1996; 21 May 1997; The Leader, 4 November 1998, 21, 16 December 1998, 1.

54. Community Co-op Store Board of Directors Minutes (hereafter BD minutes), 28 November 2007

55. AGM minutes, 20 June 2007

56. 2007 AR, 5, 2008 AR, 2; BD Minutes 28 February 2007; 27 February 2008; 22 December 2009.

57. The Leader, 23 December 2009, 3

58. Balnave and Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer Co-operatives,” 996.

59. Ibid.

60. CM Minutes, 21 November 1945, 18 August 1948; Community Co-operative (Nuriootpa) Limited, Circular Publishing Extracts from Dr. Hoopmann's speech to 1949 AGM.

61. Community Co-operative (Nuriootpa) Limited, Circular Publishing Extracts from Dr Hoopmann's speech to 1949 AGM.

62. CM minutes, 29 April 1976, 19 November 1980, 21 January1981.

63. Ibid., 18 February 1981.

64. Ibid., 18 August 1982, 16 February 1983, 12 October 1983.

65. CM Minutes, 20 June 1945, 19 December 1945, 11 April 1946, 18 June 1952; Interview with Hatch, Hoffman, Schulz, 16 March 2010; Sheard's Service Stores Limited director's meeting, AGM minutes, 11 April 1946; The Advertiser, 25 June 1949, 6.

66. Balnave and Patmore, “Localism and Rochdale Co-operation,” 64; CM minutes, 17.1.1968; 2009 AR, 3-4, 29, 2010–2011 AR, 2, 9.

67. CM minutes, 17 January 1968.

68. Ibid.

69. Ibid., 21 February 1968.

70. Ibid., 21 November 1973, 16 January 1974, 20 March 1991, 17 April 1991

71. Community Co-op Store BD Minutes, 27 June 2007, 24 October 2007, 16 July 2009, 25 November 2009, 2 December 2009, 27 January 2010.

72. Community Co-operative Store (Nuriootpa) Ltd., 1987 AR, 4; CM minutes, 17 September. 1975, 18 February 1976, 18 March 1981, 15 July 1981, 21 April 1982, 12 October 1983, 21 December 1983, 18 January 1984; The Leader, 18 January 1984, 23.

73. AGM Minutes, 16 June 2010: Balnave and Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer Co-operatives in Australia,” 998; CM Minutes, 27 January 2010; The Leader, 17 March 2010, 6–7

74. AGM minutes, 30 May 1945; 1985 AR, 3, 2010 AR, 7.

75. The Barossa News, 4 July 1946, 1.

76. AGM minutes, 26 June 1952.

77. Ibid., 30 June 1954.

78. The Barossa and Light Herald, 24 April 1969, 3.

79. Ibid., 27 May 1976, 3.

80. Ibid., 27 May 1976, 3, 2 June 1981, 5.

81. CM minutes, 18 May 1983, 21 November 1984; The Barossa and Light Herald, 4 July 1974, 5.

82. Special General Meeting Minutes, 26.6.1946; CM minutes, 15 September 1948, 20 April 1949; Co-operative News, 1 October 1949, 11; The Barossa News, 17 January 1946, 6.

83. CM minutes, 20 April 1966, 20 September 1967, 15 October 1969, 16 October 1982, 18 May 1983, 19 October 1983; The Leader, 22 June 1983, 3, 10 August 1983, 7, 3 October 1984, 17.

84. BM minutes 15 December 1993; 15 November 1995; 15 July 1998; 16 September 1998.

85. Community, 24 January 1945, 2; Robbins, “Community Development,’ 141–151.

86. Birchall, “The International Co-operative Movement,” 95–96.

87. Jensen, Barossan Foundations, 149–150, 153; Letters from M. Langalow to H. Sheard, 23 October 1942, 30 November 1943. National Archives of Australia, Canberra, A705, 163/163/433.

88. Barossa Herald, 2 March 1944, 1; CM minutes, 19 December 1945; Fuller, “A History of Community Service,” 43–44; The Community Co-operative Store (Nuriootpa) Limited, “Departmental Accounts for Year Ended 28th February, 1945”, unpublished manuscript.

89. AGM minutes, 26.6.1946; CM minutes, 22 August 1945, 3 July 1946, 23 July 1946, 2 September 1946, 16 October 1946, 17 March 1948, half yearly meeting 28 November 1946.

90. Balnave and Patmore, “Rochdale Consumer Co-operatives,” 998.

91. The Barossa and Light Herald, 26 October 1963, 9.

92. Ibid., 2 June 1981, 5.

93. BM minutes 19 November 1997, 18 February 1998, 20 May 1998, 17 June 1998.

94. AGM minutes 24 June 1998; The Leader, 4 November 1998, 1

95. The Leader, 10 April 2002, 9.

96. Ibid., 2 July 1970, 1, 10 August 1983, 1, 2 November 1983, 1.

97. Ibid., 18 January 1984, 6.

98. Ibid., 4 March 1987, 1.

99. The Leader, 24 November 2010, 10.