this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
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MEC back under Canadian ownership after 5 years of U.S. management (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by jerkface to c/canada
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Article contains significant errors. MEC was never owned by its members. If it were, we would have had a say when it was sold, voting on whether to accept the offer, and receiving a share of the payout. MEC was never actually a cooperative. I think there should be consequences for this deception. I also think there need to be more consumer cooperatives than there are. Please mention any you know below.

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[–] recursive_recursion 20 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Article contains significant errors. MEC was never owned by its members. If it were, we would have had a say when it was sold, voting on whether to accept the offer, and receiving a share of the payout. MEC was never actually a cooperative. I think there should be consequences for this deception. I also think there need to be more consumer cooperatives than there are. Please mention any you know below.

In September 2020 MEC was acquired by an American company after filing for creditor protection.

They were a coop before the aquisition.

As MEC currently operates, members each hold a co-operative share, worth about $5.00. Claus says that it is "highly unlikely" that members would get their share value back.

  • RFD, direct link to quote provided below

Sources:

[–] jerkface 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

When MEC incorporated, there was not an option under Canadian law to have a legal cooperative. They attempted to conduct themselves as one, but in the end, members were not owners, so it was never a cooperative. That situation did eventually change, but MEC didn't restructure to take advantage of the new laws.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

No option for a cooperative? That's news in the agricultural world. There's plenty of rural coops, we have one locally called Pembina West Cooperators and it's been around for decades, as long as I can remember. UFA is another one, hell, it started out as a political party. We get annual dividends back from them based on our spending throughout the year, against the profit of the coop.

[–] adespoton 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I used to be a MEC member/shareholder, around 25 years ago. There was an AGM, we voted on major store policy, and there were sometimes even dividends, but usually we all voted to roll those back into the co-op.

Back then, it was very much member-owned.

Since then though, the structure changed significantly, even before the buyout. More and more power was put into the hands of the executive, to try and deal with the cash flow issues the company was having. It didn’t work.

[–] jerkface 4 points 6 days ago

It was an ersatz cooperative, where the executives attempted to respect member's interests, paid dividends, etc; but there was no legal protection or ownership.

[–] Quilotoa 5 points 6 days ago

Glad to hear. Great store.

[–] dubyakay 1 points 5 days ago

Karma Co-op in Karma Ln, close to Bathurst.