Page 509 - 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»

agency. By far the greater portion of the goods bought will at once be
sent on to the stores ordering them, and, where there is plenty of room for
warehousing, any quantity of goods they need kept in stock.
Each store will be left to determine for itself when and to what amount of
commodities it is proper to purchase at any time. Many stores have already
acquired the knowledge of "when to buy," and those stores that had not so
learned it will be one of the duties of the agency to keep them well advised
upon that matter. If a store thought proper to speculate in any article supplied
through the agency, it will do so at its own risk. Whereas if the wholesale
affair be made a trading concern it will necessitate ultimately the centralisation
of some £50,000 sterling, with all the liabilities and contingencies of a trading
establishment. On the other hand an agency will secure all the advantages
expected to accrue from the " Wholesale Depot " without any of its risks.
I wish to advert to an instance where, to some extent, the plan here
propounded is carried out. There is the E,ochdale Pioneers' Society with its
nine grocery branches, all supplied and managed by the central store in Toad
Lane. The transactions of the Rochdale store with its branches are done in
this way: the head shopman at each branch store makes out a list of require-
ments for his branch on a form provided for the purpose, and sends it to the
central place of business ; then the manager gives directions to the railway or
canal companies where the goods are lying to send such and such quantities
of articles specified to such and such branch store named on the delivery
order.
Now the central store stands in the same relation to its branches as an
It will be almost as easy to manage an
agency would to the stores joining it.
agency as it is to carry on the concern named. The mode will be very similar,
but the time in getting goods through the agency will be a trifle longer, and the
transactions very much larger, but only requiring the same amount of labour
to work the agency as it does to work the Rochdale store with its branches.
We have another case in point, in the Rochdale Com Mill Society, of the
beneficial working of a wholesale establishment. There are 60 co-operative
stores belonging to the corn mill, from which they take wholly or in part the
flour required for supplying their members. This co-operative arrangement
permits the business of corn grinding to be much more economically and
profitably done than any single store could of itself accomplish. The absurdity
would be no greater if each of the 60 stores on its individual account purchased
grain to manufacture into flour, as if each store was to buy groceries singly.
In the case of the com mill we have exemplified the strength and benefit of
concerted operations ; in the case of the stores acting singly we have weakness.
Isolation is the opposite of real co-operation, which is the combining, consulting,
and so acting together of good and true men as to bring about those
ameliorative conditions which shall lead to self-elevation by promoting the
welfare of humanity, and a state " in which the good of the whole is tantamount
to the highest kind of good for each."
It is indispensable to the well-working of any scheme, especially a
co-operative one, that those who wish to be concerned should thorouglily
understand the conditions upon which it is based, and their obligations
relative thereto. A proper comprehension of the conditions and obligations
at the commencement of this wholesale affair will obviate, in great degree,
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