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Kristen Andrews is planning some big changes for Ragpickers.

An eccentric Exchange District institution will be making some big changes in the coming months.
   
Prompted by a rent hike at its current McDermot Avenue location, Ragpickers Anti-fashion Emporium and Books, a vintage clothing and costume store that sells and rents everything from turn-of-the-century ball gowns to ’70s-era disco boots, has closed its second-floor performance space and begun the hunt for a new home.
   
That’s not all, however. Ragpickers is also planning to fundamentally overhaul the way it’s been doing business for the last 27 (!) years — switching from a sole-proprietorship retail model to a co-operative structure that will see everyone involved with the shop have an equal say in its operation.
   
The decision to give up control was inspired by the Occupy movement that swept through North America last fall, says owner Kristen Andrews; now 42, she began working at Ragpickers in the late-’80s and took over the business in 1990.
   
On Oct. 15, 2011 — the day Occupy Winnipeg set up camp in Memorial Park — Andrews gave a speech to those participating in the grassroots protest against economic inequality and other forms of injustice.
   
"It made me realize that the only way that I was going to really see the changes that I wanted to see — both in the community and in the business, and in how people make an ethical living and how people survive — was to just try to instigate some of that change," she says.
   
Though most details are still being hashed out by a small steering committee that includes current store employees, independent business owners, local crafters and representatives from Manitoba’s co-op community, the plan is for Ragpickers to become what’s known as a multi-stakeholder co-op.
   
Unlike worker co-ops — which are employee-owned businesses (local examples include Mondragon, Neechi Foods and Organic Planet) — or consumer co-ops (such as credit unions, carsharing services and housing co-ops) which provide their members with goods or services, multi-staker co-ops are made up of different types of members — workers, investors, customers, etc. — who share common goals and values; usually, these include a commitment to inclusivity, equality, environmental stewardship and a concern for the communities in which they operate.
   
Although popular in other countries and in Quebec — long considered a Canadian leader in the co-op field — the multi-stakeholder model has only been legal in Manitoba since last June, when the provincial government made changes to the legislation governing co-ops in order to allow such enterprises to form.
   
Andrews says it fits perfectly with the way Ragpickers operates.
   
"We’ve always had a loose collective structure that has allowed for all these different types of relationships with consignors and makers and workers," she says.
   
"Now there’s finally a model that is basically based on how we’ve been surviving all these years."
   
Ragpickers’ upcoming conversion is particularly timely. The United Nations has declared 2012 as the International Year of Co-operatives, an action meant to draw attention to the way co-ops contribute to the well-being of communities throughout the world by combining economic development with social responsibility.
   
For Andrews, the motivation to go co-op is a personal one.
   
"More than anything, the challenge that I put out when I made that Occupy speech was for people to fully embrace living the life of their choosing," she says.
   
"I’m seeking the best way to have ethical employment and to share that with as many people as I can."
   
Ragpickers’ main-level shop remains open but will likely move in late spring or summer once a suitable new location is found. In the meantime, activities that used to take place in the second-floor space have moved to the nearby Rudolph Rocker Cultural Centre.
   
Though the future is unclear for Ragpickers, Andrews isn’t worried. If anything, she’s excited.
   
"Sometimes the best changes come about when things happen that, at first, feel a little bit uncomfortable," she says.
   
"We’ve had seven different locations in this neighbourhood and every time we’ve moved, it’s been a forced move. Getting pushed into an evolution: it’s a great thing, right?"