Sample Letter to the Editor
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Product: Sample Letter to the Editor
Co-op Type: All
Use: Submit for Placement in Local Daily Newspapers
and Trade Publications
Audience: General Public
To the Editor:
As ongoing corporate scandals continue to erode public trust, a
new national survey reveals that consumers have a more trustworthy
and accountable alternative to publicly traded companies: Cooperatives.
Co-ops are, by definition, democratically owned and governed by
the people who use the its services or buy its goods-its members.
That makes co-ops more accountable to consumers than publicly traded
corporations and produces the appropriate business incentives and
conduct. Co-ops are governed by boards of directors that are democratically
elected by their members. As a result, those board members are both
the owners of the business and its customers. There are no conflicting
loyalties.
The survey, released on October 1, 2003, found that two-thirds
of Americans believe businesses that are owned and governed by the
people who use their services—as cooperatives are—to
be more trustworthy than other types of businesses. By wide margins,
Americans rated cooperatives higher than large, publicly traded
corporations on questions of trust, ethics, service and value, and
commitment to their communities. Most said that knowing a business
was a co-op would make them more likely to buy its goods or use
its services.
Fortunately, there are more than 48,000 cooperatives in the U.S.
that provide valuable goods and services to some 120 million Americans.
To help consumers find the businesses they trust, state and federal
consumer bureaus should do more to inform consumers about cooperatives
and help them locate them. And if regulators are looking to make
corporate America truly accountable, they should take a lesson from
co-ops.
Sincerely,
[Co-op Spokesperson]
[Co-op Name and City]
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