Initially, the disputes and confrontations within the Twin Cities Cooperative movement were not referred to as "Wars", but the nomenclature developed in part as a result of the title of a documentary made decades later.
[2] Many of the early counter-culture co-operatives had hopes of being able to offer a natural and inexpensive alternative to the grocery industry in a community-centered farmers' market economy.
[10] The dispute among the various members of the coop and worker-owned broke into the open in early May, 1975 when the CO members attended a quarterly meeting of the Policy Review Board, an intermediary organization made up of various representatives from different food stores, hosted at the Odd Fellows Hall above the Green Grass Grocery, a Saint Paul Coop.
[4] Some surrounding food cooperatives were in favor of this change and continued to do business and align with the CO’s main objectives while others boycotted and found other ways in which to transport and sell their product.
In response to these incidents, food co-operatives in the area began incorporating to ensure their property ownership could be verified by the police during occupations.
[4] The Mill City Food Cooperative met this march with approximately 200 of their own people who blockaded the storefront and were able to maintain the CO marchers from entering.
[2] In the summer of 1976, the biggest food cooperative, People’s Warehouse was restored back to its original order with the Policy Review Board regaining full control through winning a significant court action.
[4] Following this loss, the CO still maintained power in some cooperatives, but made no further attempts to expand their revolutionary efforts by taking over new co-operatives.
[13] People who were not as involved, such as the everyday citizens of Minneapolis and the surrounding areas, were scared away, and the wars have negatively stigmatized food co-operatives for some older twin-cities residents.
The damage done by the wars, in public image, drove many cooperative members to trend away from taking part in political activity in the region.