438 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
It is to confront this matter that I beg to 
call your attention, and ask for your aid and 
advice to help to meet the emergency. I 
wish to impress on our members the desira¬ 
bility to join a general meeting, to confer 
upon and discuss the matter, to try if any 
means can be proposed, such as a deputa¬ 
tion to the wholesale houses, or a request 
to them by circular, asking for their kind 
consideration, that whereas some houses did 
serve the Association, that it was a grievous 
wrong done to their quondam customers, 
and praying them either to discontinue to 
do so, or to put them upon a different tariff 
t o the chemist; that the public should not be 
able to get Cockle’s pills at 9 \d. or lOd., and 
rhubarb at so many pence per ounce, so that 
some of the stigma of being deemed extor¬ 
tionate, because we require to be paid the 
advertised price, or to reap a fair profit, may 
be wiped away. I feel assured that if such 
request be fairly and temperately made, most 
of the respectable houses would listen to and 
entertain it, and it maybe the means of pre¬ 
venting a mass of ill-feeling which is grow¬ 
ing at the present time. And I think it but 
just and fair to ask those whom the retail 
have helped to support, to assist us in a case 
like this. 
The Association goes in for no profit; we 
avowedly live by our profits, or why should 
we invest capital and give up our time to 
the responsibility and trouble of trading, 
but to enable us to pay our way, to live by 
our labour, and, if fortunate enough, to lay 
by some provision for old age? We have 
been termed a nation of shopkeepers, and I 
doubt not that many rather rejoice in the 
name, than wince under the taunt that was 
intended ; but we shall soon find our trade 
departing to establishments which do not 
trade in the true sense of the term. 
It has been hinted to offer to supply the 
public at so much per centum reduction, but 
I maintain the chemist cannot afford to do 
it, because we should be giving away that 
very portion that comes to ourselves in the 
shape of profit; and would any of us be san¬ 
guine enough to think that by so doing he 
would double his returns ? as unless it so re¬ 
sulted it would be sheer foolishness, and no 
one would get any thanks from the public 
for the sacrifice. 
I consider the time for action should be 
immediate. 
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
John T. Tupholme. 
80, Lamb’s Conduit Street. 
Dear Sir,—The November number of the 
Journal contained some well-written letters 
on the above subject, and it is with the view 
of arousing the trade to a sense of the 
dangers which threaten it, that I add my 
testimony to that of Mr. Urwick and others. 
The practice of under-selling, so justly 
condemned by one of the writers, is unfor¬ 
tunately not confined to co-operative agen¬ 
cies. We have but to look around us, and 
we find chemists, to the injury of their neigh¬ 
bours, and certainly not to their own credit, 
advertising at considerably less than the 
average prices. For instance, in my own 
neighbourhood, and in a respectable tho¬ 
roughfare, 6d. feeding-bottles are ticketed in 
a window at 5 d .; seidlitz powders 8d. per 
box, and so on, whereas at another shop close 
by patent medicines are sold without charge 
for the stamp duty. This much-to-be-re¬ 
gretted practice condemns itself, and must 
eventually find its own level. In the mean¬ 
time we must hope that as we advance pro¬ 
fessionally to a higher standard, the trading 
element will raise itself in like manner to 
fair and honourable competition. 
So much for the dangers from within, but 
we have more to fear from without, and it 
is to this subject I wish more particularly to 
draw the attention of your readers, many of 
whom are perhaps unaware of the existence 
of the “Civil Service Co-operative Stores,” 
or if they are, it is possible that there are 
but few who know the growing extent of 
business done there, or consider its probable 
effect on our own branch in particular. 
These stores were established a few years 
since by members of the Civil Service, for 
the purpose of supplying themselves with 
articles of demand at wholesale price, or 
nearly so. 
To* effect this object shares were issued, 
and the required capital paid up, since which 
the promoters, not content with confining it 
to members of the Civil Service, issued yearly 
tickets at 5 s. each to friends of members; 
and it is a fact that the number of sub¬ 
scribers, at the present time, exceeds 30,000, 
producing an income amply sufficient to ac¬ 
count for the prices at which goods are sup¬ 
plied. 
The Stores are situated in Monkwell 
Street, Long Acre, and Haymarket (the 
latter belonging to another branch of the 
Service). On paying a visit to the Long 
Acre establishment, the other day, I was 
astonished to see almost every trade repre¬ 
sented within its walls, and the numerous 
customers (chiefly ladies) that thronged 
each department. Passing through large 
rooms devoted to grocery, drapery, sta¬ 
tionery, etc., I made my way to the drug- 
counter, where two or three assistants are 
employed, and an ordinary retail trade 
carried on, with this difference—everything 
is put up in bottles of various sizes, and 
labelled ready for sale, and nothing is sold 
from bulk. All Is. articles are sold at 8 d., 
De Jongh’s cod-liver oil at Is. 10 d., patent 
medicines, perfumery, and proprietary ar¬ 
ticles at wholesale prices. 
It was not so much curiosity that induced 
