Green Shoots All Over: Opportunities in Cooperative Business Investment

Recently we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when every finance news organization and television station broadcast signs of a retreating recession with “green shoots” sprouting up all over. What these pundits and economists seem to miss is that unemployment is still rising and for the communities hardest hit by layoffs, it’s difficult to see these “green shoots”.

In the areas most affected by the crisis, it is much easier to see the signs of economic stagnation; businesses closing, bank-owned houses, longer lines at the soup kitchen and nutritious food sources drying-up. In my father-in-law’s neighborhood in Springfield, VA, the majority of houses are completely dark at night. They are still left vacant after being ravaged by the early portion of the foreclosure wave, before any foreclosure reprieve was announced.

To see the effects of the recession on the inner city, just do a Google search for a grocery store in any economically challenged, high density urban area. Many of the stores that pop up in Google actually have closed or moved in the past two years, leaving many residents with no access to fresh, nutritious groceries. For example, two Safeway stores are listed in Google with a Southeast DC address, but when you go to Safeway.com and use their store locator, the Southeast DC Safeway locations are no where to be found, as you can see below on the map.

When I see evidence like this, I once was disheartened at how the growing economic crisis was transforming into a nutritional crisis. What do I see now? I see opportunity for expanding the co-op movement. Credit unions are the best example of a successful cooperative business model, but they are not the only ones. The NCGA (National Cooperative Grocers Association) is a cooperative network of food co-ops that are still growing in the face of economic adversity. See a recent article from CreidtUnions.com detailing “A New Focus on the Cooperative Model” for more information and data.

There is a wide array of cooperative business that want to fill the void left by many of their for-profit competitors. Just as credit unions are expanding their market share, other co-ops are looking to take over new territory. Easing the business lending cap would enable credit unions to invest in successful cooperative businesses and create a new revenue stream. For there’s one thing economists have forgotten, in order to cultivate “green shoots”, you must first plant seeds.