• @[email protected]
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    fedilink
    13 months ago

    …isn’t that just a co-op grocery store with extra steps?

    I agree though, we should incentivize having food co-ops in every state.

    • @[email protected]
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      3 months ago

      Not really, a co-op will redistribute the profit to the members but you still need to become a member in order to get money back (requiring that you put money down upfront which isn’t a possibility for everyone) and the goal is still to make profit.

      State run means if there’s profit it goes in the government coffers and is used to pay for social programs, but if it’s a non profit it would mean adjusting prices the next year based on sales predictions to compensate or reinvesting all profits to open more branches with the surplus necessary coming from the government.

      In the end the goal would be to run it as close to cost as possible.

      • @[email protected]
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        fedilink
        13 months ago

        Ah, you’re right in that co-op’s are more direct contributions.

        My equvilancy was coming from the fact that I was thinking of the taxpaying base as the “members” of the co-op, and the redistribution of profits of it’s members as the social services. I mean you vote for the board of a co-op too so…technically…the co-op model could work here.

        • @[email protected]
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          fedilink
          23 months ago

          I guess, but if the goal is just to put pressure on the private equivalent then only a non profit would truly bring them to their knees as a co-op can still have greedy members putting people on the board that will do everything they can to maximize the redistribution going to the members so they might get a nice check at the end of the year, but day to day their grocery is no cheaper and it isn’t cheaper for non-members (if they’re also allowed to shop there).

          We’ve seen a co-op being ruined by greed and then privatized in Canada (an outdoors equipment store but still)…

          Food is an essential need, I don’t even understand how come we let the private sector take care of it in the first place and the State corporation option has been tried elsewhere (in an European country if I’m not mistaken) and prices plummeted when they entered the market and private ones just had to adapt and lower their prices as well.