Recently, the Galway Co-op has received several New Customer Set Up Forms from former Co-op members seeking to re-join our organization. We have decided to reject these applications and I would like to take this opportunity to explain that decision.
The Co-op was designed so that members could collectively show a high level of usage in order to obtain lower fuel prices. Its purpose was not, however, intended for members to use Co-op pricing to negotiate better individual pricing with an outside fuel distributor. When a member elects to leave the Co-op for the promise of better individual pricing, the member in effect takes away from the very tool that allows the Co-op to negotiate our pricing ñ usage. When a member takes the usage with which the Co-op bargains and then commits that usage to a non-Galway Co-op provider, it may help that former member but it fails to show respect for the Co-op and our efforts. It is the group effort that allows the Galway Co-op to maintain lower negotiated pricing. Individuals have every right to seek better pricing on their own, however they shall not do so at our group’s expense.
Ben Neri
