Booksellers Without Bosses: People’s Co-op Bookstore
Words By Thomas Chisholm
Businesses are usually hierarchical and authoritarian. They put turning a profit first, sometimes to the detriment of the planet and their employees. In this interview series, we’re highlighting presses and bookstores managed along horizontal lines. Some are cooperatives, while others simply reduce hierarchies in their management. By spreading out leadership and in some cases ownership of a business, these companies allow their employees to steer them into making sustainable, ethical choices that aren’t driven by profit.
Established in 1945, the People’s Co-op Bookstore is a member-owned bookshop in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The People’s Co-op has a long and haggard history. They’ve moved locations and almost shut their doors for good on multiple occasions in the last seventy-five years.
Like many businesses at this time, their doors have closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Though a store as resilient as the People’s Co-op will surely reopen for business soon.
This interview was conducted with Rolf Maurer, the board of directors’ chairperson at the time this interview took place. The opinions he expresses are his own and do not represent the entire perspective of The People’s Co-op.
Thomas Chisholm (TC)
Is The People’s Co-op Bookstore a worker-owned co-op?
Rolf Maurer (RM)
No, it’s what’s usually called a consumer’s co-op. Anyone can become a member of the co-op by buying twenty-five shares.
TC
How would you describe its cooperative structure?
RM
This is pretty much set out by law (the Co-operative Association Act) here in BC, which has a long history of co-operatives in a lot of different areas. Members get together at general meetings to set general directions and choose a governing board, which in turn hires or appoints individuals responsible for keeping the doors open and the lights on.
TC
How many people does The People’s Co-op employ? Are volunteers a part of the staff?
RM
We’re generally able to afford one part-time paid staff person at the moment and are otherwise dependent upon volunteers.
TC
How does the management structure differ from a traditional business?
RM
In a narrow, technical sense, it doesn’t, as intended by the governing legislation. Theoretically, professional management is responsible to a board of directors appointed by members at general meetings. The main technical difference is between one-dollar-one-vote, in normal share capitalism, and one-member-one-vote in (effectively) co-operative capitalism. But the repercussions of that difference are far-reaching. In our instance, the co-op structure made it possible, back in 2009, for the membership to turn aside the then management’s proposal to close the store.
TC
The People’s Co-op Bookstore has gone through a number of personnel, location, and financial changes in its almost seventy-five-year history. The store has almost closed for good on multiple occasions, as recent as 2018. Is the store on steady ground again?
RM
Nope. The store’s future is still somewhat precarious and probably will be for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, this is the nature of bookselling and commercial-rent paying in the modern age.
TC
How has The People’s Co-op sustained itself for long? What has made it so adaptable to changing conditions?
RM
There’s a two-part answer to the first question. The store was founded by a broad coalition of trade unionists, communists, social democrats, unitarians, activists, as well as ordinary citizens. And was thus established on a broad basis that served the co-op well even during its extended decline when it was de facto controlled by the local communist party.
But the second part of the answer is probably the cooperative structure we’ve been talking about. Because it wasn’t always about the money, but about some underlying purpose—operating this bookstore that offered something the other bookstores in town were not. The co-op’s open membership structure was able to respond differently to conditions than a more traditional ownership structure might have.
TC
In my experience living in co-ops, everything happens incredibly slowly. Is there anything about the cooperative model that inhibits The People’s Co-op or individual workers? What are the drawbacks of cooperation?
RM
Ah, yes. That can be true. A few years/boards [of directors] ago, we used to amuse ourselves at the expense of previous boards that spent years and years discussing the possibility of a new store sign, before another board finally ended up doing something about it. Surely, some future board will make fun of this current one for taking up literal years of talking about painting this place, while leaving it untouched the whole time.
TC
What advice would you give to folks interested in forming a cooperative bookstore?
RM
Embrace used books and use your status as a co-operative to solicit donations of used books (you will, in fact, be providing the community with a valuable service). Embrace BOOKS, period, and don’t waste a lot of time considering all the other things a bookstore might be: coffee bar, performance space, gift emporium, mail drop, whatever. And, by all means, go ahead and draw up careful plans about exactly what kind of bookstore you want to have, but be prepared to adjust according to your actual experience. Listen carefully to what The People are telling you. Abandon preconceptions all you who enter here.