Consumers' Cooperative of Berkeley

Consumers' Cooperative of Berkeley (CCB, also known as Berkeley Co-op) was a consumers' cooperative which operated from 1939 to 1988^[1], when it collapsed due to internal governance issues and bankruptcy. During its height, it was the largest cooperative of its kind in North America, with over 100,000 members, and its collapse has provoked intellectual discussion over how food cooperatives should be operated^[2].

The CCB evolved out of the Berkeley Buyers' Club, formed on January 27, 1936 by a small group of families active in Upton Sinclair's EPIC and local Democratic Party clubs.^[3] In the beginning the co-op operated out of the basement of the parsonage of a local Methodist minister, Roy Wilson, in cooperation with another buyers' club formed seven weeks earlier in Oakland, California. In April 1937 60 families in the local clubs joined forces to open the CCB's first store at 2491 Shattuck Avenue.

By the end of 1937 the store had moved into larger premises on University Avenue, and by 1939 the co-op had grown to 225 families, with sales of $700 a week. In 1957 it was the second largest urban cooperative in the United States, with 6,000 member families, and by 1963 there were 30,000 families enrolled and several stores in operation.

Presidents

• Margaret Shaughnessy Gordon
• Fred Guy

See also

• The Cooperative Grocery

References

1. ^ Berkeley Journal; Who'll Sell Tofu Puffs After Co-ops Are Gone?, by Katherine Bishop, Monday, June 6, 1988, New York Times
2. ^ Berkeley: Lessons for Co-op Leaders, by Karen Zimbelman, January-February 1992
3. ^ For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, by John Curl (PM Press, 2009), p. 192-203. Retrieved April 28, 2010.

External links

• Guide to the records of the Consumers Cooperative of Berkeley at The Bancroft Library