Page 507 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

First Plans for the C.W.S.
development. Let us see if the progress of co-operation now offers ample
room for success.
There were in England, when the "Central Co-operative Agency" was
established, not more than ten stores, and not more than seventeen when the
Rochdale store established its "Wholesale Department." What a contrast
—indicative of co-operative progress—these times present with those of ten
or twelve years ago ! Now there are some hundreds of co-operative stores
in the United Kingdom. In the June niimber of the Co-operator of last
year there are eniimerated upwards of 250 stores. There are in Lancashire,
Yorkshire, and Cheshire alone 120 stores, numbering in the aggregate
40,000 members. Twenty-six stores in the counties named did bvisiness to the
amount of £800,000 in 1861. If we take the average weekly expenditure of the
40,000 members at 10s. each (tlais will be under the average) it will give an
expenditure of £20,000 weekly, or an annual expenditure of £1,040,000.
No doubt from the statistics here given that the field for aggregative efforts
has considerably expanded since the failures mentioned in the former part of
this paper.
We have succeeded, too, in carrying through Parliament a measure affording
facilities for, and sweeping away many legal impediments to, co-operative
progress, enabling that to be done by direct sanction of law which had to be
done previously by roundabout methods.
I will here place before the conference a calculation of the quantities of
commodities of the kind named in the tables required to supply the 40,000
members of the co-operative stores in these Northern districts. The calculations
are made on the data of goods actually sold in one quarter at the Rochdale
Pioneers' Society. There are 3,500 members belonging to the Rochdale store,
and, as the average consumption of groceries, &c., is higher per member than
at most stores, I may reasonably take it for granted that the demand at the
Pioneers' store will equal one-tenth of the demand of the 40,000 members.

One Quarter's
One Quarter's Consumption of Groceries, &c., at the Consumption of
Rochdale Equitable Pioneers' Store. 40,000 Members
pro rata.

Coffee 9,000 1b. 90,000 lb.
Tea 7,736 1b. 77,360 lb.
Tobacco 5,363 1b. 53,630 lb.
Sniiff 141 lb. 1,410 lb.
Pepper 316 lb. 3,160 lb.
Sugar 1,819 cwt. 18,190 cwt.
Syrup and Treacle 520 cwt. 5,200 cwt.
Currants 140 cwt. 1,400 cwt.
Butter 932 cwt. 9,320 cwt.
Soap 440 cwt. 4,400 cwt.

This and the following table pretend not to be strictly correct to fractions,
but sufficiently so for the purposes of this paper.
409