If you should drop in for lunch at any one of the three branches of our Cooperative Cafeteria in New York City the first thing that would strike you would be the friendly spirit of those back of the serving tables.  Before you paid your check you would observe further that the food had a variety and flavor not found in the ordinary restaurant.  If you were discerning you would detect that a complex machinery was at work which had nearly escaped you because of its smooth operation.

That genial spirit which infects the whole place and those subtle things which appeal to your eye and palate explain the success of the cafeteria.  But there are some underlying causes for these things that we must get hold of and to do that we must go back to the year 1919.  In October of that year a private cafeteria was started by two women with a record of successful cafeteria experience behind them.  The experiment proved successful and the following April a momentous step was taken.  It was proposed that the persons who ate there become the owners.  A cooperative society was formed and in two weeks shares were sold to the value of two thousand dollars.  The new owners took over the cafeteria and the former owners became their hired employees.  This was the beginning of Our Cooperative Cafeteria.

The cafeteria had from the outset advantages which are gained by many cooperatives only after bitter and costly experience.  They had skillful and experienced management to which they immediately gave over all technical control, holding them responsible through an active Board of Directors and an accounting system devised by experts.  The management justified the confidence of the shareholders.  On April 1, 1921, after one year of operation they had outgrown the first plant and a new branch had been running for two months.  There were in all 379 members.  The year’s business had been $96,000, of which $6,000 were net earnings.  The stockholders had received six per cent on their investment, a reserve fund had been laid aside, and every month the member-patrons had received rebates on the food eaten of from six per cent to sixteen per cent.  At the end of the second year the third branch, larger than either of the others, located in the Wall Street business section, had been in operation for three months.  The membership of the society had increased to 750.  The business for the year had been $190,000 and the net earnings were $12,000.

The cafeteria now employs sixty-eight workers, most of whom are shareholders and vote as such in membership meetings.  The worker receives the same food as the patrons, served at the same counter.  Against all restaurant traditions the worker is served before the meal so that she may have the best there is and have it before she is too tired to eat it.  The minimum wage is higher than the customary rate for restaurant workers in New York.  The forty-eight hour week is the standard, although as yet some of the help work over that time.  Overtime is one thing that the management has not yet been able wholly to eliminate.