How Mormon Economic Cooperatives Like Deseret Industries Work

LDS Perspective

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has maintained a continuous tradition of economic cooperation rooted in revealed principles of consecration, stewardship, and covenant responsibility. Following the American Civil War, President Brigham Young established the cooperative movement to protect Utah’s frontier economy from external exploitation and to implement economic self-sufficiency based on these principles. This effort culminated in the 1868 formation of Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) and the subsequent establishment of “united orders” throughout Latter-day Saint settlements, which operated on communal production and distribution designed to care for the poor and minimize inequality among Church members. The same foundational principles that motivated the

Historical Perspective

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintains a distinctive economic cooperative tradition rooted in 19th-century communitarian experiments and institutionalized through the modern welfare system established during the Great Depression. Deseret Industries (DI), founded in 1938, operates as a vocational rehabilitation facility and thrift store chain rather than a traditional retail enterprise, reflecting theological commitments to consecration and self-sufficiency that have characterized Mormon economic organization since the pioneer era. The cooperative economic impulse traces to the United Order experiments of the 1870s, when Brigham Young attempted to implement Joseph Smith's Law of Consecration through community-based resource sharing. While these 19th-century communes larg