owner in michigan is a realist when it comes to business. we were in desperate shape. but we just hung on and worked hard, cut back on help. the big boxes were coming in, the home depots and lowe s were coming in, and they were putting the locals out of business. the founder and ceo is a fighter. his organization helps the small ones. the local, independent business person has the brains, and they have the talent but they don t have a scale. individually none of the small businesses have much buying power, but together as members of the retail cooperative, they can compete with anybody. you have to level the playing field. we have the same rules and scale as the big boxes. the membership is made up of