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.
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.
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.