Coop Group

Coop operates as Switzerland's #2 retailer ($30B+ revenue) through cooperative ownership similar to Migros. Founded in 1890, the company serves 2.5+ million cooperative members while competing directly with Migros in groceries, home goods, and services. This duopoly structure - two cooperatives controlling 70%+ of Swiss retail - creates unusual dynamics: neither pursues pure profit maximization, allowing sustainable pricing and employee treatment that publicly-traded retailers can't match. Coop's survival for 133 years proves that cooperative retail models work when: (1) markets are small and wealthy enough that scale economies favor local players, (2) consumers value quality and ethics over extreme price competition, (3) competitors are also cooperatives, preventing capitalist entrants from undercutting prices.