In the United States cooperation has had an erratic development.  Within the past seven years, however, there has been a rapid increase in new societies until today it is estimated that there are about three thousand with a membership of half a million.  In number of societies New York is far behind most of its sister states.  It has one hundred and twenty-five genuine consumers’ cooperative associations, seventy-five of which are among farmer groups and the remaining fifty among city consumers.  There are in addition some twenty cooperative buying groups connected with large commercial organizations.  No complete tabulation has been made of the total business of all these cooperative groups, but in 1921 the five largest cooperative societies among the city consumers, with an average membership of 1,800 persons, all located in New York City, did a total business of approximately one million dollars.  These societies and many others are prospering.  On the other hand there are many cooperatives which have failed.  Whether they have failed or succeeded more knowledge of practical cooperation can be gained from their experience than can ever be learned from books.

The Consumers’ League feels that the experience of these societies should not be wasted.  For this reason it is telling the stories of several cooperatives in New York, some of which are successfully established and some of which have fallen by the roadside.  In these brief stories are written a hundred lessons that cooperatives should heed.

SUCCESSFUL COOPERATION

The Utica Cooperative Society.

At the corner of Court and Schuyler Streets in Utica stands a grocery store which is different from an ordinary store.  It is different because it is a cooperative store and it belongs to those who buy as well as to those who serve.  There is no need for the purchaser to be on guard lest the bargain be to his disadvantage, for he is dealing with friendly clerks who are there to help him find what he wants, not to sell him something he cannot use.  In this store the purchaser can find all the articles carried by a first-class grocer, canned goods, green goods, dairy products and, in addition, a complete supply of baked goods, baked by the cooperative society itself.

The bakery is to be found behind the grocery.  Large, high windows throw a flood of light into the mixing room.  The oven is of a modern type, large, easily controlled and economical.  Five men work at the baking and a boy wraps bread in waxed paper with a mechanical device which automatically folds and seals.  The three delivery wagons bear the cooperative motto, “Each for All, and All for Each.”  They are used in the morning for the delivery of baked goods and in the afternoon for the delivery of groceries.  It keeps three boys busy all day covering the territory between the cooperators’ homes.  The delivery system is essential because the membership is scattered throughout the entire city.