The term cooperative also applies to businesses owned by their customers: a Consumers' Co-operative. Employees can also generally become members. Members vote on major decisions, and elect the board of directors from amongst their own number. A well known example in the US is the REI (Recreational Equipment Incorporated) co-op.

One of the world's largest consumer co-operatives is the Co-operative Group in the United Kingdom, which has a variety of retail and financial services. In reality the Co-operative Group is actually something of a hybrid, having both corporate (other cooperative businesses) and individual members.

Japan has a very large and well developed consumer co-operative movement with over 14 million members; retail co-ops alone had a combined turnover of 2.519 trillion Yen (21.184 billion U.S. Dollars [market exchange rates as of 11/15/2005]) in 2003/4. (Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union., 2003). As well as retail co-ops there are medical, housing, insurance co-ops alongside institutional (workplace based) co-ops, co-ops for school teachers and university based co-ops.

Around 1 in 5 of all Japanese households belongs to a local retail co-op and 90% of all co-op members are women. (Takamura, 1995). Nearly 6 million households belong to one of the 1,788,000 Han groups (Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union., 2003). These consist of a group five to ten members in a neighbourhood who place a combined weekly order which is then delivered by truck the following week. A particular stength of Japanese consumer co-ops in recent years has been the growth of community supported agriculture where fresh produce is sent direct to consumers from producers without going through the market.

Agricultural cooperative

Farmers' grain Co-op in Crowell, TX.Agricultural cooperatives are widespread in rural areas. In the United States, there are both marketing and supply cooperatives. Agricultural marketing cooperatives, some of which are government-sponsored, promote and may actually distribute specific commodities. There are also agricultural supply cooperatives, which provide inputs into the agricultural process. In Europe, there are strong agricultural / agribusiness cooperatives, and agricultural cooperative banks. Most emerging countries are developing agricultural cooperatives. Where it is legal, medical marijuana is generally produced by cooperatives

Cooperative banking (Credit unions and Cooperative savings banks)

The Co-operative Bank's head office, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester. The statue in front is of Robert Owen, a pioneer in the Co-operative Movement.Credit Unions provide a form of cooperative banking. In North America, the caisse populaire movement started by Alphonse Desjardins in Quebec, Canada pioneered credit unions. Desjardins wanted to bring desperately needed financial protection to working people. In 1900, from his home in Lévis, Quebec, he opened North America's first credit union, marking the beginning of the Mouvement Desjardins. While they have not taken root so deeply as in Ireland or the USA, credit unions are also established in the UK. The largest are work-based, but many are now offering services in the wider community. The Association of British Credit Unions Ltd - ABCUL - represents the majority of British Credit Unions.

British Building Societies developed into general-purpose savings & banking institutions with "one member, one vote" ownership and can be seen as a form of financial cooperative (although many 'de-mutualised' into conventionally-owned banks in the 1980s & 1990s).

The UK Co-operative Group includes both an insurance provider CIS and the Co-operative Bank, both noted for promoting ethical investment. Other important European banking cooperatives include the Crédit Agricole in France, Migros and Coop Bank in Switzerland and the Raiffeisen system in many Central and Eastern European countries. The Netherlands, Spain, Italy and various European countries also have strong cooperative banks. They play an important part in mortgage credit and professional (i.e. farming) credit. Cooperative banking networks, which were nationalized in Eastern Europe, work now as real cooperative institutions. A remarkable development has taken place in Poland, where the SKOK (Spóldzielcze Kasy Oszczednosciowo-Kredytowe) network has grown to serve over 1 million members via 13,000 branches, and is larger than the country’s largest conventional bank.

Car sharing

Carsharing is an arrangement by which individuals and groups share vehicles, which are stored in convenient common locations. It may be thought of as a very short-term, locally-based car hire, run on a members-only basis. It is most prevalent in Switzerland (where the Mobility Car-Sharing cooperative has some 50,000 clients), but is also common in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, and is fast growing in popularity in other European countries. Car sharing operations may be for-profit or non-profit organizations. Zipcar and Flexcar are examples.

In Britain, where the term 'car sharing' has also been used for carpools or ride-sharing, some people prefer the term 'car clubs'.

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