Motives and demographic characteristics of members of democratically controlled businesses in northern California and Oregon are described. Participants are young, well-educated, and low to middle income. Compared to private firms offering similar goods or services, members perceive co-ops and collectives as superior in social atmosphere, price, learning opportunities, quality of goods and services, and honest merchandising; as less satisfactory in amount of time devoted to membership obligations. The collectives are more committed to social objectives than are the consumer cooperatives. There is little overlap among the motives or the membership in the two organizational formats. Implications of the diverse motives and membership for the spread of the cooperative movement are discussed.
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