You told us what matters most

We asked Co-op member-owners what matters most to them as we develop our new strategy. Here’s more about what we heard and what we’re going to do about it.

Our new vision puts member-ownership back at the heart of our Co-op, shaping our thinking and decision-making.

If we are to make a real difference with and for you, our member-owners, we need to listen to what matters most to you and give you year-round ways to have your say. We have 5m member-owners around the UK and it’s important that we hear from as many of you as possible, but we also understand that everyone participates differently. 

So, throughout April and May, we launched our first Member Survey. Through our insight panel, the Co-op Collective, Join In Opportunities, our AGM voting journey, and during local events in stores and communities, over 13,000 member-owners helped us identify three key themes: sourcing, the environment and fair opportunities for all. 

We continued the conversation on these themes at our AGM Members’ Discussion, which I hosted. I really enjoyed hearing from members in the room on how we could tackle each theme together and the changes they would like to see. 

Our fantastic Member Participation Team supported members who joined in from home with an online version of our discussion, and I know they were keen to get involved too. 

I’d like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who took part in our survey or the discussion, we genuinely appreciate your time and energy. It’s your Co-op and we want to make sure you can play your full part in it if you want to.

Here’s some examples of suggestions made by member-owners:

Use membership scheme to reward member-owners for making better choices that help the environment – e.g., unpackaged goods, returning packaging to store.

Broaden the range of our local products, including fresh, as these will sell well and quickly. Make the products relevant to a specific area and tap into what they’re known for.

Do more to support our older members who may be increasingly isolated in the digital world, provide face-to-face ways for younger members to talk about their mental health and ensure that we are serving working class and ethnic minority communities too.

Now that we’ve listened to what matters most to you and I’ve done some feeding back on what’s happened so far, it’s time to share more about how we’re reacting to what you’ve told us and how you can get involved with tackling the issues together.

Within our theme of ‘Fair opportunities for all’, you said that access to healthy eating is something that we needed to explore. This was reinforced by the AGM Motion from our National Members’ Council, which called for Member Prices on healthy food, as well as personal care and hygiene products. 

I’m delighted to tell you that we’ve made some real progress on this already, with Member Prices being rolled out on 54 fruit and veg lines, including British and seasonal produce and our popular ‘Fresh 3’ offer. And that’s all because of you, our member-owners.  

From now until 27 July, we’re asking our member-owners to shape what we do next to continue supporting ‘Fairer opportunities for all’ with healthy eating. We’ll also be looking to understand more about what members need when it comes to caring for others or staying connected to communities whilst living independently at home.

If you’d like to use your voice to make a difference, visit our Join In website to get started and be in with a chance to win money on your membership card.  

With your thoughts and ideas, we’ll be making more progress on the issues that you care about and that need addressing.  As we go, we’ll continue to feed back, listen and ask you to get involved. Please keep an eye out for opportunities on bringing our other themes to life as well.