An alternative to avoiding the companies doing bad things in the world is supporting companies that are doing good things in the world. A good place to start is with cooperatives. For another day and another diary will be a list of those companies that are employee-owned (like Bob’s Red Mill, an employee co-op) or family-owned and score high justice points (like Penzeys Spices).
So here is one list of cooperative brands in the United States, thanks to the many contributors to wikipedia. Note that some of them are wholesale buying co-ops; for example, Ace Hardware. The individually-owned hardware stores are not themselves co-ops but are actually the members/owners of the larger wholesale buying cooperative. Being a cooperative does not automatically mean a company is good, it just means ownership is distributed and an owner/member model might tilt it in the direction of just practices. In other words, for a negative example, a local Ace Hardware store might be owned by a real jerk even though the store itself is part of the larger buying co-op. Another thing to note is that there are many smaller local cooperatives not on this list; for example, Outpost Natural Foods in the Milwaukee WI area (of which I have been a member/owner for 40 years), or Cenex grain elevators/gas stations, or the farmer-owned AMPI dairy cooperative. Note also that Credit Unions fall into this category even if “too small” to be on this list.
My suggestion for using this list is to pick out the brands for products you use and make a small list to take shopping. I’ve bolded the brands I’m guessing we’re most likely to encounter, but what do I know?!
21st Street Co-op, student housing co-operative in Austin, Texas
Ace Hardware, Oak Brook, Illinois
Affiliated Foods Inc.
Affiliated Foods Midwest Co-op Inc.
Affiliated Foods Southwest
AgFirst Farm Credit Bank
AgriBank
Ant Hill Cooperative
Arizmendi Bakery, San Francisco, California
Associated Food Stores
Associated Grocers of Florida, Inc
Associated Grocers of the South, Inc.
Associated Grocers, Inc.
Associated Press
Associated Wholesale Grocers
Associated Wholesalers, Inc.
Audubon Mutual Housing Corporation
Avalon Organic Gardens & EcoVillage
Basin Electric Power Cooperative
Belfast Cooperative Store in Belfast, ME
Berkeley Student Cooperative
Black Star Co-op A brewpub located in Austin, TX
Blue Diamond Growers
Bob's Red Mill
Brattleboro Food Cooperative[8]
Brown Association for Cooperative Housing
Cabot Creamery, Vermont-based dairy marketing
Carolina Foothills Federal Credit Union[9]
CCA Global Partners
Central Grocers Cooperative
Certified Grocers Midwest
Choptank Electric Cooperative
CHS Inc.
Coastal Federal Credit Union
CoBank
Co-operative Central Exchange
Cooperative Development Foundation
Dairy Farmers of America
Dairylea Cooperative Inc.
Delta and Providence Cooperative Farms
Diamond Walnut Growers, Inc.
Do It Best Hardware
Equal Exchange
Fare Share Food Cooperative (Norway, Maine)[10]
Farm Credit Bank of Texas
First Tech Credit Union
Florida's Natural Growers (formerly Citrus World Inc.)
Florists' Transworld Delivery (FTD)
Fourth Estate
Freedom Farm Cooperative, an agricultural cooperative
founded by American civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer in 1967
Full Sail Brewing Company
George Street Co-op
Great River Energy
Greenbelt Homes, Inc.[11]
Greenbelt News Review[12]
Group Health Cooperative
GROWMARK, Inc.
Harvard/MIT Cooperative Society
Inter-Cooperative Council at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor MI)[13]
Land O'Lakes
Madison Community Co-op
MFA Incorporated
Michigan State University Student Housing Cooperative
National Cooperative Bank (now NCB)
National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA)
National Co+op Grocers (NCG)
National Grape Cooperative Association, Inc.
National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation[14]
Navy Federal Credit Union
New Deal Cafe[15]
New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union[16]
Nebraska Rural Radio Association
Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund
Oberlin Student Cooperative Association
Ocean Spray (cooperative)
Oglethorpe Power Corporation
Old Dominion Electric Cooperative
Park Slope Food Coop
Pentagon Federal Credit Union
People's Food Co-op (Portland)
Piggly Wiggly Alabama
Pioneer Telephone Cooperative (Oklahoma)
Pioneer Telephone Cooperative (Oregon)
Princeton Cooperative
R.E.I. (Recreational Equipment Inc.)
Rapidan Camps[18]
Riceland Foods
Scary Cow Productions
Snake River Sugar Company
Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative
Southern States Cooperative
Sunkist Growers, Inc.
Tennessee Farmers Cooperative
The Union Credit Union[19]
Tillamook County Creamery Association
Topco Associates (includes Food Club, Shurfine, Full Circle and others, see note below)
True Value Corporation
U.S. AgBank, FCB
U.S. Central Credit Union
Unified Western Grocers
USA Federal Credit Union (San Diego, Ca)[20]
United Hardware Distributing Company (Hardware Hank)
Universal Cooperatives
URM Stores
VHA, Inc.
Wakefern Food Corporation
Weaver's Way Co-op
Weaver Street Market
Wedge Community Co-op
Welch's (Welch Foods Inc.)
Western Family Holding Company
Western Sugar Cooperative
WestFarm Foods
Wheatsville Co-op
Whole Foods Co-op
Winfield Park Mutual Housing Corporation
WSIPC
Sometimes it’s interesting to dig down. For example Topco, a cooperative brand listed above that you can find in many local grocery stores, is actually owned by the following member/owners:
Affiliated Foods Inc.
Alex Lee Inc.
American Associated Pharmacies
Associated Food Stores
Associated Grocers, Inc.
Associated Grocers of New England, Inc.
Associated Grocers of the South, Inc.
Bashas' Inc.
Big Y Foods, Inc.
Brookshire Brothers, Inc.
Brookshire Holdings, Inc.
C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.
Centro Cuesta Nacional, C. por. A.
Certco, Inc.
Coborn's Incorporated
The Fred W. Albrecht Grocery Company
Frosty Acres Brands
Giant Eagle, Inc.
Golub Corporation / Price Chopper Supermarkets
Harps Food Stores, Inc.
Hartig Drug Company
Hy-Vee, Inc.
Imperial Distributors, Inc.
Ingles Markets, Inc.
King Kullen Grocery Co., Inc.
K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc.
Larroc, Inc.
Lund Food Holdings, Inc.
Meijer, Inc.
Mitchell Grocery Corporation
Northgate Gonzalez Markets
Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Company, Inc.
Piggly Wiggly Midwest, LLC
Pueblo Inc.
Raley's Family of Fine Stores
Roche Bros. Supermarkets LLC
The Save Mart Companies
Schnuck Markets, Inc.
SpartanNash Co.
Stater Bros. Markets
Tops Markets, LLC
URM Stores, Inc.
Wakefern Food Corp.
Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.
Weis Markets, Inc.
source: wikipedia