Huntsville gazette., 1883-12-08
The Great Cooperative Stores Of Lon.
don.

London has a great number of Coop
erative stores. of all degrees of import
ance and with all classes of patrons
They are nearly all, believe, run on a
modified cooperative plan. Among
them are the two largest and most aris-
tocratic stores of this kind in Great
britain, the Army and Navy Co-opera-
tive Society and the Civil-Service Sup
ply Association. OF the former, which
is, suppose, the most extensive coop
erative store in the whole world, l will
give you a short description.
1t occupies an immense four story
block of buildings in Victoria Street, in
one of the most fashionable quarters Of
the town, where, in an interminable
maze OF apartments, are kept almost
every article ever offered for sale.
There are, however, some things which
the store does not keep. But it publishes
LIST of tradesmen who will furnish them
to its patrons at from ten to twenty per
cent. discount for cash. SO that prac-
tically it keeps everything. Its price
list which / have before me, is a bulky
volume of 1902 pages, handsomely
printed and elegantly illustrated, and
they print of this about $4,000 copies
twice year, and a monthly circular
giving any changes in price that may
have occurred. To attend to their vast
trade, they employ $500 men and 2OO
women. From the eleventh annual
balance-sheet | gather the following
facts with regard to the business of
the Association for the year ended
January 81, 1888:
The share capital of the Association
is S,00,0C0 only, in shares of five dol
lars each, though its actual invested
capital is very much greater, arising
from deferred interest payments and the
invested deposits of savings bank,
which is one of its features, and in
which 1t pays four per cent. interest to
depositors. Its receipts during the year
were Sl0,772, 10S, and its net profits
S2O2, 500, or sixty-one per cent. of its
share capital. We are not, therefore,
surprised to hear that the market value
of its tive-dollar shares is $3.50. With
that prudence for which great corpora
tions are famous, a modest dividend OF
five per cent. only is declared, and the
rest of the surplus is devoted to water
ing the stock, under the name deferred
bonus" There have been four such
waterings of fifty per cent. each. SO
that the stock has been virtually trebled.
The number of shareholders is l5,O35.
and the number of shares held bv any
one person IS limited to 500. Only Off
GERS of the army and navy are eligible
to become shareholders, but persons in
troduced by them and approved of by
the Board of Directors may become
subscribers s''-that is, be allowed to
purchase goods. OF these there are no
less than 26, ,859-pot quito twice the
number of shareholders They have no
share in the profits, and pay S1.25 the
first year and sixty-two cents year
thereafter for the privilege of trading.
1t should be mentioned that the Asso-
citation has lately extended its enterprise
to manufacturing for itself many of the
articles which it sells. Last year it
made the following articles to the value
of S743,S70: Guns, traps, portmanteaus,
tin goods of all kinds, fancy woollen
goods, printed goods, stamped goods,
shirts, perfumery, and watches. 1t is
managed by very wide-awake business
men. and is constantly extending the
sphere Of its usefulness. Its success is
almost phenomenal. yet its officers de-