THE TEAROOMS.
The tearoom adventure was proving only moderately successful, and, in reply to a question, the chairman admitted at one meeting that the profit shown on the balance-sheet had all been made by the purvey department. At another meeting, he stated in reply to a question about electricity that at M‘Neil Street, where they generated their own current, they found electric lighting to be cheaper than gas, but where they had to take their supplies from the Corporation it was more costly, his reply being—“In West Nile Street, where we get our supply from the Corporation, it is nearly killing the place.” The organ of the Traders’ Association made great fun of this remark, stating that “the tearooms in West Nile Street must be in a perilous condition when the difference in the cost of gas and electricity is nearly killing the business”; and went on to point out that “tearooms must have a practical proprietor.” “Here, then, is an excellent example of the fact that where overcharges cannot be made on the goods sold, Co-operation cannot prosper.” Doubtless the Commercial Record man was entitled to his little chuckle, but his premises being faulty, his conclusions were equally faulty. There were other factors than overcharges which entered into the failure of the U.C.B.S. to make a commercial success of their tearoom business, and led to its being finally abandoned. It is probable that the West Nile Street place was too large and too heavily rented to permit any firm, however experienced, to make tearooms a success in a back street. Then, the people who acquire the tearoom habit are business people, and are therefore not too friendly disposed to any Co-operative enterprise and, having a very wide choice of such establishments, their prejudices took them elsewhere. That Co-operative tearooms can be made a success, even in Glasgow, the Drapery and Furnishing Society has proved, but it is questionable whether Co-operative tearooms anywhere, which are not conducted as an adjunct to other businesses, and very near to central drapery or similar premises, have ever proved successful, and there is no place in Great Britain where the ordinary tearoom is so good as in Glasgow, and, therefore, where a Co-operative tearoom which is called to stand on its own legs, so to speak, has such strenuous competition to face.
In August 1899 Mr Robert Watson resigned to take over the management of the S.C.W.S. dining and purvey department, and a Mr J. M. Picken was appointed his successor. The management of the purvey and tearoom departments were also separated. Mr Picken did not prove a success, however, and was succeeded by Mr Thomson. At the end of the lease, the Society decided to give up the Main Street purveying branch, but to keep on the tearooms. At several general meetings suggestions had been made that the Society should open tearooms of a cheaper class, to suit the pockets of the workers, and the committee made some inquiries about this but found that the rents in the city were very high. A place in Clydebank was considered but abandoned owing to the lack of accommodation, and also because of opposition to the project from the committee of Clydebank Society. It was decided finally to fit up the Main Street shop for this purpose, but, after a short trial, the tearoom there was given up.