Rocky Mountain House Co-op (RMHC) is a retail outlet located in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. Frank Gallagher is their general manager and Milt Zirk is the Petroleum manager. Milt is worried that the entrance of United Farmers of Alberta into Rocky Mountain House will threaten RMHC's petroleum division.
             RMHC is situated 80 kilometres west of Red Deer and its location is right off Highway 11.The town of Rocky Mountain House (RMH) has a population of about 6,000 people and has both an agricultural and a commercial economic base. The area can be classified as mixed farming and the industry in the area includes general business, trucking, construction, oil exportation, and logging. RMHC's trading area, however, is not limited to RMH; it also includes Alder Flats, Alhambra, Caroline, Condor, Leslieville, Nordegg, and Stauffer. This equates to approximately 16,000 people in their trading area.
             RMHC is a co-operative type business where it is owned by the users of the firm. One can become a member by purchasing shares of the company. Also, instead of making what a regular business would call "profits," a co-operative makes "savings" that are returned to members as "patronage dividends." RMHC has 7332 active members which have joined this co-op so that they can share in the savings of business through patronage dividends. These dividends are distributed to members depending upon the amount of business a member does each year. The more they spend at the co-op the more dividends they will receive. Another highlight of co-ops is that each member also has the right to elect board of directors that will represent their views. The dividends at RMHC over the past several years have been about five percent of purchases at RMHC. In 1995, $683,000 in patronage dividends was earned by RMHC from the Federated Co-operatives LTD in Saskatoon. They are a large wholesaling co-operative that RMHC uses as their ...