The will of consumers is clear: giving meaning to their purchase by defending an ethic.
Transparency is the first medium put forward by cooperatives to defend this ethic. Cooperators are systematically informed of the company's financial statements and are also aware of all the decisions. This leads to the second pillar: the capacity to act. Cooperators are regularly involved in the decision-making process through general meetings or votes, and therefore have the opportunity to influence the company's strategy.
Finally, the third pillar, and perhaps the most important, is this desire to create a sustainable and fair model. Each cooperative has its own way of distributing turnover and profits. Some focus primarily on job creation. Others such as Neibo aim to distribute profits among cooperators and charitable or fair projects. Finally, some cooperatives such as "The Phone Coop" reinvest the profits in other branches of the cooperative network to which they belong to create a global dynamic: farms, renewable energy, social projects, etc.
A community movement
Cooperatives reflect two fundamental needs of our time: the need to give meaning to our consumer actions and the need to regroup.
In telecoms, like elsewhere, end customers will often seek to group around a common value for better consumption. As a result, community-based mobile subscriptions are multiplying; offers for movie lovers, video game players, an ethnic community, fair and sustainable offers, offers for frequent travellers and so on.
