There are fourteen employees in the grocery and bakery. Hitherto they have received wages higher than those generally prevailing throughout the city for the same kind of work, but recently on their own initiative they voted themselves a ten per cent decrease. In a cooperative all members may know the financial status of the business and the employees found that, due to the diminishing margin of profit, the business could not support such a high scale of wages. Their wage cut followed because as members of the cooperative they were interested not only in their own wages but in the good of the society as a whole.
The Utica Cooperative Society was organized in 1915 by a group of Germans. Half a dozen nationalities are now represented, although Americans predominate. Although they had only ninety-two members and $1,250 to start, they bought out a private store and began cooperative business. Their bakery was originally in the cellar under the store. The former owner was employed as manager. For three or four years they experienced many difficulties. Within two years two managers proved inefficient and had to be replaced. Only the tenacious loyalty of a few kept the society alive. But they had the foresight and determination to fight through those lean years.
Now for five years they have had the same manager. He insists upon scrupulous bookkeeping methods, careful buying, close supervision of his work by the board of fifteen directors, strict regard for the needs and desires of the membership, and exceptional precautions against waste and leakage. The president, a man having a private business of his, own, has an idealism almost religious in quality. These two men cooperate closely on matters of policy and provide much of the leadership which has brought success.
The membership is now 380. The capital stock has increased from $1,250 to $27,594. The business in 1921 amounted to $105,598, forty per cent of which was done by the bakery. Since 1915 the rebates to members on patronage have totaled $8,207, fluctuating from nothing at all in some years to eight per cent and ten per cent in other years. During this period the lump sum saved to purchasers, including rebates, the earnings on stock shares, and reserve fund, amounted to $12,642. This sum would have gone into the pockets of private storekeepers except for the cooperative store.
The Utica Society has succeeded because it has met the prime requirements for effective cooperation. The greater part of the membership was loyal during critical times when the easy way would have been to withdraw and trade at chain stores. The management worked unceasingly to put the business on an economical basis. Finally they won out because they put Service over Profit and carried out that rule in the most practical and businesslike way they could find.
Our Cooperative Cafeteria.
If you should drop in for lunch at any one of the three branches of our Cooperative Cafeteria in New York City the first thing that would strike you would be the friendly spirit of those back of the serving tables. Before you paid your check you would observe further that the food had a variety and flavor not found in the ordinary restaurant. If you were discerning you would detect that a complex machinery was at work which had nearly escaped you because of its smooth operation.
That genial spirit which infects the whole place and those subtle things which appeal to your eye and palate explain the success of the cafeteria. But there are some underlying causes for these things that we must get hold of and to do that we must go back to the year 1919. In October of that year a private cafeteria was started by two women with a record of successful cafeteria experience behind them. The experiment proved successful and the following April a momentous step was taken. It was proposed that the persons who ate there become the owners. A cooperative society was formed and in two weeks shares were sold to the value of two thousand dollars. The new owners took over the cafeteria and the former owners became their hired employees. This was the beginning of Our Cooperative Cafeteria.
The cafeteria had from the outset advantages which are gained by many cooperatives only after bitter and costly experience. They had skillful and experienced management to which they immediately gave over all technical control, holding them responsible through an active Board of Directors and an accounting system devised by experts. The management justified the confidence of the shareholders. On April 1, 1921, after one year of operation they had outgrown the first plant and a new branch had been running for two months. There were in all 379 members. The year's business had been $96,000, of which $6,000 were net earnings. The stockholders had received six per cent on their investment, a reserve fund had been laid aside, and every month the member-patrons had received rebates on the food eaten of from six per cent to sixteen per cent. At the end of the second year the third branch, larger than either of the others, located in the Wall Street business section, had been in operation for three months. The membership of the society had increased to 750. The business for the year had been $190,000 and the net earnings were $12,000.