General Info

The beginnings of the modern cooperative movement can be traced back to the town of Rochdale, England. A band of 28 working people formed the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers. Desperate over low pay and high living cost, the 28 local workers invested their money, time, and energy and opened the first consumer based cooperative. Their goal was to provide themselves with the basic human needs: food, shelter, goods and services. The fame from the Rochdale Pioneers came not from what they did, but from how they did it. Working together, not one, but all workers benefited. From that small group emerged what has become known as the Rochdale Principles, a set of practices and procedures that have served as a guidepost for cooperatives around the world.