We had one in a city we lived in. It was worth it to get things on sale and when we couldn’t easily find them, elsewhere.
The daily from scratch soups and the frozen packages of Alaskan sockeye salmon meat scraps were always amazingly good. We found the best coffees we’d never known, there, and drink them to this day, but now buy direct over the Internet.
We took a class or two they offered on cooking or prepping meals from scratch.
We even bought a share of the co-op, then sold it for the same price, as we left. The share let us get additional sales opportunities a couple times a year.
We were, and still are, “Crunchy Cons.” We were among a lot of liberals, but they are all nice and sedate in the Co-op.
Whole Foods and Sprouts are substitutes for a co-op, for products. The co-op probably had more bulk dispensers of various items, though.
Thanks for sharing the positive experience.