SUSTAINING A ROBUST COOPERATIVE ECONOMY
BY BOARD DIRECTOR BRANDON HINES
Austin is a truly special place. We live in a city that is unique within this region of the country, supporting a long-lived cooperative community. Having lived elsewhere in Texas I have always wondered what sparked such a community to come together in Austin and why didn’t that same spark fuel similar communities in other Texas cities.
I recently read an article that was shared by the folks at Austin Cooperative Business Association about the world’s largest co-op, Mondragon. Before reading the article, I had only a passing familiarity with Mondragon through my interest in their Orbea bikes. Bikes are only one of a multitude of products and services offered by Mondragon. Mondragon is a co-op conglomerate in the Basque region of Spain. The article shares the history of the region and how the region became dominated by cooperative businesses providing many types of goods and services filling many needs of the community. My takeaway was not so much about the products and services but about the template for developing so many cooperative companies within the community to
fill just about every niche of their economic ecosystem. The history of Mondragon is unlike any other co-op but there are many interesting insights that could be valuable to any community looking to strengthen its cooperative economy.
Cooperatives contribute to the overall health of a community in many ways. Co-ops enable people to participate in prosperity. Co-ops provide a means of democratic control that aligns the values of cooperative companies with that of the community. Co-ops build social cohesion connecting diverse members of the community. Co-ops bolster the local economy by circulating more of the profits within the community.
There are many types of co-ops in Austin but Wheatsville stands alone as the only full-service retail cooperative grocery store in Texas. A search of food co-ops in the U.S. depicts Wheatsville as somewhat of an outpost—farther from our next nearest food co-op neighbor than any other co-op in the nation. It is amazing to see the number of co-ops in other cities such as Seattle or Minneapolis. What makes these cities different from Austin and are we are doing everything we could be doing to better serve the greater Austin community.
While Wheatsville is only one co-op among many. It is arguably the most visible in Austin. Having a successful co-op visible in the community introduces cooperative principles to new people who may decide to form their own co-ops. It provides an example of what is possible. Wheatsville is both a reflection of the community as well as a catalyst for propelling the community.
Austin is changing. It is not the same Austin as it was back in the days of the Armadillo World Headquarters or Liberty Lunch or Mother’s Garden Cafe or [fill in your own personal first experience of Austin]. That is to say that Austin is constantly changing but the change has not extinguished the core of what makes the community special.
As the city grows in both population and geography, what will Wheatsville’s role be? How will Wheatsville continue to serve members of our community who are increasingly spread throughout the expanding Austin region? Will Wheatsville grow with the community or be enveloped by a growing metropolitan city? And what will this mean for Wheatsville’s ability to contribute to the cooperative economy? I like to think that there is a future where Wheatsville, along with many other co-ops, can serve everyone who wants to participate in the cooperative economy. Where there are more cooperative jobs allowing more people to participate economically with livable wages. A future where we all come together and spark the next phase of cooperative growth and development enabling Wheatsville, along with my other co-ops, to serve and support the growing community within our own cooperative economic ecosystem.