BrentOntario - 4/19/2013 23:19

(First note: Please refer to them as "CO-OP", short for "co-operative", not"COOP". Whenever I see that word, i think in terms of "chicken coop".)

The Co-op network in Ontario has partially collapsed, the umbrella org was taken over by FS / Growmark quite a few years ago, and the employees of the local co-ops were unionized. The employee pension fund's investments were either or both very badly managed or had a string of poor luck, resulting in big loses. Facing pensions cut in half, the union sued the fund, and judge ruled that the local co-ops had to make up the difference. This put a few co-ops in financial dire straits obviously, terminating some, judge ruled that the remaining co-ops had to make up for the pension shortfall of the insolvent ones. This of course put more strain on the rest, resulting in... you guessed it, the co-ops went down like dominoes.

Our county co-op had fertilizer, crop inputs, fuel distribution, hardware stores, and livestock sale barn. The local bargain-seekers were all to eager to pick up the leftover pieces at closeout prices. Customers held off major store purchases until the going-out-of-business sale (which only speeded up its demise).

I've always dealt with the private owned input dealer, since it has it's own bulk blending plant to fill the spreaders, something the co-op never had (it only had fertilizer bagged or in totes trucked in when ordered in advance.) Also, the place is convient: right next door.

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