Motivation of Food Cooperative Members: Reply to Curhan and Wertheim

Curhan and Wertheim have published 2 articles describing the results of their studies of 35 food-buying cooperatives in the greater Boston area. Their conclusions concerning the motivation of members, the kinds of benefits members receive, and prospects for co-op survival are at considerable variance with other empirical studies on the cooperative movement. Curhan and Wertheim were not optimistic about the long-range survival prospects of food cooperatives. To examine member attitudes, Sommer, Hohn, and Tyburczy conducted interviews with 365 customers at various co-op stores in western states. The results showed that the motives of co-op members are a complex mixture of pragmatism and idealism. No support was found for the predominance of primary group motivation described by Curhan and Wertheim. The results underscore the importance of economic motivation among co-op members.