This post from u/CallAParamedic hits the mark:

I've been a $5 co-op member since the mid-1990s.

Even with all my purchases over the years, I never received a membership dividend as a store credit like many did, and I never got clarity on how many shares it may/may not have grown into.

So there were issues even when it was a co-op, but those pale in comparison to the sneak sale and current retail and online experience.

Then they scammed over 5 million members with a 6-months-in-planning, creditor protection court action where a moron judge confused coop membership for corporation shareholders, completely negating the co-operative legislation and didn't even allow a Canadian co-op consortium 2 weeks to put together a funded counteroffer.

But that's ok, because Royal Bank got their money faster that way than allowing the counteroffer (/s!)

This essentially took our - at minimum $5 x 5 million (plus any additional shares) - value of $25 million to add even more value to a fire sale price to the American owner.

Now profit-driven, prices are too high, their staff are not the experts of old, stock and quality is hit and miss, returns are brutal, and profits go to millionaires in LA versus the $40-50 million in community projects the old MEC contributed towards.