Among them was a group of 28 workers who were dissatisfied with the merchants in their community. They formed a consumer cooperative known as the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844. They began by opening a cooperative store that sold items such as flour and sugar to members, and the Society quickly grew to include other enterprises. The founders also established a unique combination of written policies that governed the affairs of the cooperative. Based on its success, the Rochdale set of policies soon became a model for other cooperative endeavors, and became known as the general principles that make a cooperative unique from other business structures.
Many cooperatives combine all three types of functions in their operations.
Marketing cooperatives Marketing cooperatives help to sell their members' farm products and maximize the return that they receive for these goods. Their operations can be quite diversified and complex. Some marketing cooperatives perform a limited number of functions, while others vertically integrate their operations so that they perform more functions that add value to their members' products as they move from the farm to the consumer. Marketing cooperatives can serve their members in many ways, including bargaining for better prices, storing and selling members' grain, and processing farm products into more consumer-ready goods. Products include production supplies such as seed, fertilizer, petroleum, chemicals, and farm equipment.