A SURVEY OF TYPICAL COOPERATIVE STORES. 
Table V. — Practice as to selling. 
15 
Question. 
Stores re- 
porting. 
Low. 
High. 
43 

95 
43 

100 
42 
10 
98J 
42 
n 
90 
37 
25 
100 
37 

lO 
36 
2 
85 
36 
15 
98 
45 
$7, 500 
8623. 703 
36 
12 p. ct. 
30 p. ct. 
Average. 
Per cent country trade 
Per cent town trade 
Per cent membership trade 
Per cent nonmemhership trade. 
Per cent active members 
Per cent nonactive members . . . 
Per cent cash sales 
Per cent credit sales 
Total sales 
Rate of profit on sales * 
63 
37 
60 
40 
80 
20 
50 
50 
20 p. ct. 
i This is the estimate made by managers (see Table X). 
The percentage of expense to sales indicates a wide variation, 
ranging from 7 to 17 per cent. Even more surprising is the range in 
the percentage of gross profit made on the business, ranging from 
.10.5 per cent to 24.5 per cent. In accounting for this range one ele- 
ment is the kind of business. The higher figures are for businesses 
having a large trade in dry goods, shoes, and men's furnishings, 
while the lower rates were made in stores handling groceries and a 
few farm staples. The percentage of net profits to sales shows the 
variation one would expect. 
Almost all of the stores under survey were located in country 
towns, with the majority of the membership drawn from the farms. 
Hence there is an average of 63 per cent of farmers' patronage for the 
43 stores reporting, with a range of from 4 per cent to 95 per cent of 
country trade. 
Most of the stores reported a large percentage of nonmembership 
trade, the range being from 1^ per cent to 90 per cent, with an average 
for the 42 stores reporting of 40 per cent of the trade from non- 
members. 
This nonmembership patronage is due to several factors. Eighteen 
of the stores hold out the prospect of some dividends on purchases 
to nonmembers, thus securing trade. Again, many persons are in 
sympathy with the cooperative movement and expect to become 
members if the store succeeds, and in the meanwhile they give it a 
share of their trade. Finally, a great deal of the nonmembership 
trade which falls to cooperative stores is more or less accidental and 
due to the fact that many Americans give little thought to their 
choice of a place to trade. This indifference also helps to some extent 
to account for the fact that 34 stores reported an average of 20 per 
cent of their members as " nonactive," showing little interest in the 
store and giving it practically none of their trade. 
It was found that success, loyalty of members, and nonmember- 
ship trade hang very closely together. Let a store fall behind and 
fail to pay dividends and it soon loses the support of both members 
