Co-operative Shops Have Dwindled

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 20

Co-operative Shops Have Dwindled

The few long-term survivors among nearly 200 consumer co-operatives registered in New Zealand in the last 90 years seems to have been associated with special condi-

tions, according to a paper on co-operative retailing prepared for the Institute of Economic Research by Mr W. A. Poole.

He says that of the two dozen survivors only one, began in business before: World War I and only-half dozen began before World’ War 11. ’ Of the older co-operatives,; Runanga and Mosgiei have; 1 the special condition of re-; moteness from the competitive mainstream, and appear , to have close-knit for membership. Manawatu has a general/ manager who would make a| : success of any enterprise, and 1 the Public Service Investment:' Society has large-scale savings! l and loan operations. |1 Mr Poole says that the-' average life-time of consumer] co-operatives that got going < has been about nine years, i The greatest wave of registra- < tion was between 1935 and ; 1950, apart from the war years. i “Through both pre-war and i post-war formations there;

i runs a significant thread of 'antipathy towards traditional ; forms of business enterprise,” ihe says. 1 “There can be no doubt that 'many registration were based i more on this than on any 'realistic appraisal of commercial prospects.” ; Mr Poole says that perhaps the greatest single cause of 'failure among consumer co-operatives has been the J practice of retiring members i selling their shares back to ]the co-op and so draining 'away its liquidity. This was not possible with farmers’ co-operatives, which have a | history of longer life and {greater stability than consumer co-operatives. | In spite of their difficulties, consumer co-operatives seemed to have been fairly efficient retailers. In 1963, says Mr Poole, they had 1 per cent of the stores and employed 2 per cent of the labour force, but they handled 3 per cent of retail turnover.