Comment from guest #1

My orientation period at Zingerman's has been taking a lot of thought time and real time, but it's almost over. I wanted to share three thoughtful comments from a guest here, however.

I was reading about REI -- Recreational Equipment, Inc. -- REI is "the nation's largest consumer cooperative"

I was reading about REI, and I did searches on Google, and so on. I came upon an article, and it had been written by one of the former employees of REI. If I remember this correctly, one day while he was working, an older gentleman customer who had been a long-time shopper of many coops expressed his view (you know, the "listen, sonny, let me give you a bit of wisdom" bit) that in his experience, member co-ops end up being "about" the management.

Just like in A^2. So often, the argument has been between whether or not PFC is top-heavy, disconnected from the "commoners", etc...

My impromptu mini-research session about REI led me to believe that in other words, yes, management makes life as pleasant as they can for themselves by forging strong ties with the board. It's a secret circle. There are also strong ties that have been forged between the management and a small, elite minority of members. Everyone else would be better off working at Sam's Club.

The reason this is not an attempt to denigrate the management of PFC is because it is happening in many, many member coops across the nation (perhaps even the world). PFC is merely experiencing things that are being experienced "en masse" by numerous member coops all over the world.

So it is happening, but it's not really management's fault. Something like that.