Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-03-23
A STORE OWNED
BY FATORY HANDS
By Frederic ]. HaSkin
rContinued from Editorial Page.l

Continued from Ed1tofial EaSe'1
selves. He invited a number of the
more prominent men in the commun-
itv of workers to a meeting for the
purpose of working out co-operatilNe Z
Han At this meeting, by discussion
between the workmen and the onl-
GERS of the company, the plan upon
which the store is now conducted was
evolved. .,,o+
The essentials of the plan are that
all of the stock is owned by the Work-
ers themselves; that the store is man
aged by men selected from among
t%eir own number. and that the COM
many gives the store management ac-
cess to its payroll for the collection
of accounts A..
This credit system is of course the
really unique feature of the plan ana
the secret of it's success. The mlil
operative seldom has cash with which
70 nav for the necessities of life, be-
ceuse he has long been accustomed to
getting them on credit and paving
when he received his wages. Thus
any privately owned store which
would cater to his trade must have
complicated system of bookkeeping
and collecting in order to handle a
great number of small accounts. TINS
necessity creates an overhead charge
cheaply.
BY its system of collecting from the
payroll, this cooperative factory store
has neatly obviated the difficulty. The
store is operated as stock company,
the stock is all owned by the workers.
and these stockholders and patrons
all give the store company the legal
RIGHT to deduct their accounts at regu-
lar intervals from their time at the
factory. AS the payrolls are open to
the store management, 1t always
knows exactly how much credit IT
may safely extend to any individual
Thus bookkeeping, collection and IN
terest charges are cut down TO a
minimum.
A man experienced in retail store
management was first given charge OF
the venture; but failed to put 1t on a
business basis one OF the operatives
who had helped to evolve the plan
was then made manager, and althoush
this man had 10 business experience,
being merely a skilled cotton worker,
he has made a success of the business
from the first. This he attributes
largely to the fact that he has the
confidence of his customers.
The governing body of the store Is
a board of nine directors who are
elected at the annual meeting OF the
stockholders. The board of directors
elects q manager, VINO is palu d Ttd-
sonable salary. The store employs
twelve men, six Of whom are clerks,
and six delivery wagon drivers. There
is also a bookkeeper. The principal
business is done in groceries; while
shoes. notions and readymade cloth
ing of certain sorts are also carried
in stock.
The shares of the company sell for
ten dollars each. and may be paid for
at the rate of dollar down and a
dollar a week. No individual owns
more than twenty shares. The mills
employ about LOO persons, and of
these, 500 are on the books of the
company as regular credit customers
while many of the others are occa-
sional patrons.
The business record of this store is
one that any executive might envy.
On paid capital OF $500. the store
did a business of $4,000 during its
first year. The capital stock was in
! creased to $500 and later to $40, 600,
Last year the volume of sales
amounted to S147.300. The cost OF
doing business was eight and one
third per cent. and 1t must be re-
membered that this includes a credit
and a delivery system. A dividend
of so per cent. was paid to the stock
holders.