SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— F. 377 



(b) Changes in the number of retail outlets, due to special post- 

 war economic conditions, to inter-regional and inter-urban 

 changes in the distribution of population, and to changes in 

 demand, all these being conditioned by the incursion upon 

 ' private ' firm business of the multiple shop and department 

 store. 



(c) The progress of co-operative trading. 



(d) Growing importance of the branded and price-maintained 

 article. This may alter adversely the optimum scale of opera- 

 tions for a business, and tends to minimise the skill required 

 for any form of retail trading when it prevails. 



(e) The growth of road transport, altering the habits of purchasers, 

 changing the economic advantages of relative location to the 

 retailer, and providing a method of delivery which is ubiquitous, 

 but expensive. 



2. If one can make the assumption that retailing is in any way homo- 

 geneous one key to the problem of where to seek in detail for criteria of 

 change may be provided by investigating the trend of the total cost of 

 retailing. 



3. If the growing costs of retail distribution are due to ' imperfect com- 

 petition,' then the reckoning of the total number of retail outlets is no clue 

 to the extent to which the retail market is becoming more or less perfect. 

 It may be getting less monopolistic when numbers are dwindling, or more 

 so when they are growing. 



4. Conclusions. 



Mr. George Darling. — The economics of co-operative trading (11.30). 



The co-operative movement in Great Britain is a consumers' trading 

 movement possessing certain unique features which distinguish it from 

 other types of commercial enterprise. The movement consists of 1,150 

 local distributive societies in which the 7,500,000 members (representing 

 nearly 6,000,000 families) are enrolled, and which cover nearly the whole 

 of the country with a network of shops and services. These local retail 

 societies collectively own and control the two wholesale societies from which 

 they obtain most of their supplies. The wholesale societies have nearly 

 200 manufacturing plants, in addition to their importing, merchanting, 

 banking, insurance, advertising and other services. 



The size and methods of operation of a local distributive society are 

 closely correlated to the size and character of the population it serves. There 

 are therefore local differences in the services provided by these societies. 

 The majority of them are small, each numbering only a few hundred 

 members, and providing a very limited range of services. At the other 

 extreme are a few societies each with more than 100,000 members, operating 

 departmental stores and numerous branch shops. Societies of all possible 

 sizes and many varieties of services are found between these two extremes. 



While the consumers co-operative movement has many unique features 

 and exists as ' a state within the State,' it has been influenced by the post- 

 war changes in distribution. Retailing costs have increased ; delivery 

 services have had to be established ; branch shops have been closed and 

 trade concentrated fiom new big stores in recognised shopping centres ; 

 and substantial improvements have been made in shop architecture and 

 shopping services. 



It is difficult to compare the efficiency of co-operative shops with other 

 types of retail stores owing to the inadequacy of the statistics of distribution. 



