17 Years of Student Service-Creating a Sound $31,000 ASUO Business
CO many misconceptions have been circulated on this campus
about tbe University Cooperative store and so many com
plaints ara heard which are offan ill-founded and unjust, that
it seems worthwhile to review the history and outline the
present status and business methods of the Co-op.
Before 1010 books ware pm-abased for students and dis
pensed to them by 1ha University library. The library undei
loolc this function as a service—it had no budget or employee
allotment to further the work.
As Oregon grew need was felt on the eampiis for a student
book store. Librarian M. II. Douglass declared tin* library
could no longer extend the service—it had become loo much
of an additional task for its staff to bear.
In IDUi Ihe associated students voted to establish a book
store. It was set up, ns an activity, in what is now the I di
versity Pharmacy.
AT? years disrupted the student body. The athletic pro
1 T grams were financially very unsuccessful. Coach Hugo
Bezdek had an offer of a better position at (lie I diversity of
Pennsylvania. Coach Bezdek wauled to leave but 1lio ASIIO
owed him $3500 and saw little possibility for paying him off.
So the ASIIO sold its first store to private investors, paid
off the coach, and agreed not to go into the hook store busi
ness for a period of two years.
Private ownership was not a success, however, and in
1020 the executive comm if tec of flic ASIIO voted once more
to enter the field. The present University store was formed,
this time as a separate corporation to prevent its sale to meet
athletic or oilier debts. A downtown Eugene hank financed
tin* venture without security, granting a “blue sky” loan
of $5000.
In 1020 Marion F. McClain was graduate manager of the
associated students. At llio request of President Prince G.
Campbell, Manager McClain also became manager of Hie
cooperative slot-. Tin* books owned by Ihe private firm were
purchased for $3000 and Ihe ASUO was once more launched
in the store business.
EMBERSIITPS valued at $1.00 were sold to students 1o
obtain capital 1o run the firm. The investors were
given a 5 per cent return on their purchases through cash
register slips redeemable at the close of the year. Manager
r
McClain said flip total sum paid out in Ibis manner amounted
to more than the tolnl amount gained from memberships hut
that the Co-op was able thus to obtain the use of the money
for the year.
Because it soon became apparent that the business eonbl
not be run on a. $'5000 basis, the University Supply company
was formed in 1021. In order to raise money, faculty mem
bers were solicited and the “supply company” turned $10,000
over to the Co-op to enlarge the working capital.
The Student si ore was. until 1023, housed in llie structure
at the rear of its present home which is now occupied by a
beauty parlor. Manager McClain owned the lot, as he had
intended 1o open a store of his own on the loealion when
lie was offered Ihe position as manager of an A SCO store.
With outside help, he built the structure which is now in
use. First rent was $100 per month, sci by President ('amp
bell. The property was purchased by I->ean George Rebec,
in 1031.
th * # #
^^FTER 1hc first “generation” of students had been gradu
ated, discontent was manifest with Ihe “disappearing
dollar” membership, for despite the fact that the sum re
lumed to purchased in the 5 per cent on cash register receipts
exceeded the amount, collected, students who did not save
receipts or who did not purchase enough at the store to get
buck $1 felt they had been gypped.
The membership system was also unsatisfactory because
it was difficult to determine whether non-members should
receive a return for reeepits. Non-members believed that
their patronage made profit and returns possible and that
they, too, should get Ihe refund.
The system under which Ihe Co-op now operates was
installed at that time. Price of articles 'were determined
before sale to make them available at the lowest possible
figure.
Taking the purchase price as a base, cost of selling and
a sum for the increase of the store’s capital were added
and Ihe article was sold at that figure. No profit was taken,
except, that some money was used 1o pay off indtebtedness
and to increase the capital and stock of the store.
During the heyday of prosperity, the turnover once reach
ed $85,000. Last year it was closer to $50,000. The “markup”
system is still in use.
'J'TIE 17 years the present store lias been In business Lave
enabled it to prow from nothing to a sizeable and prne
tieally a debt-free concern. During the period of growth, the
University Supply company investors were paid off and a
working capital stock was built up. Doing this necessitated
selling articles a1 higher figures than would have been neecs
sary had the Co-op been an established and well-capitalized
business.
Today the Cooperative store eonld handle a considerably
large volume of business than it does. If and when such vol
ume is once more available, the markup figure will he reduced.
The greater volume of business the Co-op handles, the
lower are prices since it lias now established itself on a
permanent sufficiently capitalized basis.
MANAGEMENT of the store has been efficient. An investi
gation of the books by interested students earlier this year
showed an exceedingly elose similarity between the markup
figure, volume of business, salaries, and other expenses, and
rent. Although they fluctuate greatly with years of pros
perity and depression, the curves of all these items—emu
piled by certified public accountants annually—are remark
ably the same.
Complaints of students have usually been without-’back
ground of facts, the perusal of the store's oboks earlier this
year revealed. They are best explained with illustrations of
a few of the store’s policies.
# m «• #
JJAPKR, notebooks, folders, and the school supplies most
generally in use are sold at the lowest possible figure so
1 hat 1 lie Co-op can serve the largest number of students most.
This results in low prices on these articles throughout
the campus area because commercial firms must meet the
Co-op’s price on these popular articles to keep Ihe customers
coming in.
The biggest loss when textbooks are changed is to lire
Co-op, contrary to popular belief. The University book store
carries the volumes from year to year. When they are
changed the hooks become valueless on this campus. If it is
known that, they are to be changed a year ahead of the
change, the books are taken in at a lower price at the end
of the next to the last year of their service—and sold at a
lower figure the following fall.
Although their usefulness to the store ends the next,
spring, they are bought from the students fit. Ihe fi"iue they
can be sold for elsewhre by the Co-op. Changes in books are
expensive to the stove because they thus involve great
changes in the stock.
A survey, made off this campus with figures submitted
from the six similar stores on the coast doing a business of
mor etlian $50,000 showed Oregon’s operating expenses to he
Ihe lowest proportionally. In salaries and every bracket
except rent the Co-op was low—and its markup was below
that of any of the other six.
■p ENT. it is to he admitted, is the most expensive item, pro
^ portionately. The other five stores had lower rents in
percentages hut all of them are either occupying their own
buildings or housed in a student union.
For this and other reasons Manager McClain has always
been more than willing to hack a student union building
even to the extent of offering to pay for the building o\er
a thirty-year period.
Last year on a $50,000 (or more) turnover the Co-op, with
markup subtracted, sold its stock for about $.>0 less than
il cost to bring it to the students. This year the markup has
been slightIv higher, as the ( o-op board is budding up a.
reserve fund with which to purchase new furnishings in the
event space in a student union becomes available.
A LL in all. the students have little kick coming. In 17 years
Manager McClain has built a fairly strong business
from nothing at all.
- And during that time student needs have been served
much more efficiently than they could have been by an hide*
pendent concern.
The Co-op is a student owned corporation. Prices cannot
be greatly lower, it is true, than they can be in privately
owned stores on the present volume of business.
But since the period of building capital stock and repay
ing debts has been passed, increased trade will mean de
creased markups and lower prices.
A careful study of the facts prove the business is sound.
And its most efficient years are before it.
From where I SIT
By CLARK 10 OE
THOUGHTS ON THURSDAY
i hate thursdays.
i always have felt that way.
Wednesdays, now, aren’t bad
because
the week is half over, and be
sides
lots of things happen
on Wednesdays,
fridays, of course, are wonder
ful.
no one could possibly complain
about fridays.
* • •
but look at Thursday,
it's too late to get all the things
done you had planned for the
first of the week, and it's
too early to excuse yourself
from doing them because you
have to get started on the
things you had planned for
the weekend
4* # *1*
and then it always seems to rain
on thursdays.
it may not rain on any other
day of the week, but on
thursdays a cold grey,
disheartening drizzle is sure
to greet you as you climb
unhappily out of bed. you’re
probably sleepy, too, because
you've had to get up for three
days, and it's two more till you
can sleep in.
* * *
nothing ever happens on
thursdays except committee
meetings and assemblies,
if you feel like going to a
show at night you’re foiled,
because it’s bank night and
there'll be a mob at the show,
besides there’s never anything
good on bank night,
anyway, on thursdays you
feel that you really should
study, because you know you
won’t get, anything done over
the weekend and there isn’t
anything else to do anyway.
nothing sensational or
unprecedented ever happens
on thursday, either, because if
anyone were going to ilo some
thing sensational or
unprecedented they certainly
wouldn't pick thursday to
do it on.
there is only one good thing
about thursdays. during the
assembly hour it is aboslutely
justifiable to while away
the time one might spend
sopping up words of wisdom
drinking coffee or playing
bridge.
but .even that's not so
good because the gnawing of
consciene, except to those who
are absolutely conscienceless,
is definitely annoying.
* * #
oh, well, by the time you read
this it will be friday, and i’ll
be all right.
but i always feel this way
on thursday.
In the Mail
ECONOMICAL CO OP
To the Editor:
In 1920 the executive commit
tee of the ASUO incorporated a
student "Co-op" store. The func
tion of this “Co-op” store was
to furnish a convenient and eco
nomical organization for the
distribution of text books and
other classroom supplies.
Although all students have a
voice in this cooperative organ
ization, which according to Har
ney Hall, our student prexy, has
an investment of approximately
SIXTY THOUSAND DDL
LARS, it is certainly impossible
for this organization to furnish
the students economical distri
bution of supplies at present.
If this organization is going
to continue to pay the illus
trious dean of the school of phil
osophy the modest rental fee of
THIRTY-SIX HUNDRKD DOL
LARS a year which, Mr. Frank
Drew, the student ’•Co-op" board
president, informs me is the ap
proximate rental fee paid to Dr.
George Rebec, it certainly can
not be considered to function on
an economical basis. This sum
SIDE SHOW
By Bill Cummings and
Paul Deutclimann
National
Tn Biblical times when the
people became great in power,
so the Bible says, they aspired
to biuld a tower to heaven. But
the gods got together and con
fused the people, and the name
of the place became Babel, for
the people were confounded and
understood not one another.
Yesterday the small business
men, 1000 of them, found them
selves in much the same posi
tion as the worthy tower-build
ers hud some 0000 years ago.
* w *
However, it was not because
they had too much power, nor
yet because the political gods
derided to confuse them. The
confusion in Washington was
brought there by the thousand,
and merely represented 5000
different ideas on what to do
for, about, and wtih the small
business man.
Only one thing s*ood out in
for the period of seventeen
years, the life of the “Co-op”
store, would amount to aproxi
mately SIXTY- THOUSAND
DOLLARS, w h i c h certainly
would have been enough money
to have built a building suitable
for the special requirements of
the present “Co-op” store.
According to Dean Onthank
a fund is available for a cen
tral student union building
amounting to thirty-three thou
sand dollars. I trust that the
ASUO executive committee to
study ways and means to secure
a student union building will
take into consideration enough
building space to include a truly
economical “Co-op” book store.
Let’s quit playing second-fid
dle to the CZAR.
IRWIN BUCHWACH,
Gamma Hall.
(Editor's note: The Univer
sity Cooperative Store is a $31.
000 business at present, al
though stock turnover exceeds
that figure.
The Co-op pays rent at the
rate of $2400 yearly, not $3000.
It has not paid that sum during
the 17 years of its existence,
rent having been fluctuated
more or less with business con
ditions.
The $2400 figure also includes
heating the entire building.)
LEROY MATTINGLY, Editor WALTER R. VERNSTROM, Manager
LLOYD TUPLING, Managing Editor
Associate Editors: Paul Deutschmann. Clare Igor.
The Oregon Daily Emerald, official student publication of the University of Oregon, published daily during the college year
excej t Sundays, Mondays, holidays and final examination periods. Entered as second-class mail matter at the postffiee, Eugene,
Oregon.
Editorial Board: Darrel Ellis, Bill Peace, Margaret Ray, Edwin Robbins, A1 Dickhart, Kenneth Kirtley, Bernardine Bowman.
Bill Pengra, City Editor
Lew Evans, Assistant Managing Editor
liomer Graham. Chief Night Editor
r i i r. i\ r. w > r*> i .\ r v
Martha Stewart, Women's Editor
Don Kennedy, Radio Editor
Rita Wright. Society Editor
JJdl Noicne, Shorts Editor
Afyce Rogers, Exchange Editor
Hetty Jane Thompson, church evlitor
Milton Levy, assistant chief night editor
lilt* III' I I HI/,.
ness man wanted something,
just what, perhaps even he did
not know, hut some of them
wanted their plans so severely
that they had to he thrown out
when they became overly vocif
erous.
* as *
Among the manifold pro
grams desired by the “thou
sand” are the following strange
bedfellows:
1. Establishmen of a method
to encourage and aid small busi
ness in getting loans; curtail
ment of federal expenditures
and balancing of the budget.
2. Ending “unwarranted and
malicious attacks” on business
by the administration; clarify
ing the anti-trust laws and in
creasing the penalties for viola
tions.
3. Making both employer and
employe responsible for abid
ing by mutual labor agree
ments; repealing or amending
the Wagner labor relations act.
Also in keeping with the plan
to balance the budget, the
“small” men decdied that the
government ought to take away
the capital gains and losses tax,
reduce the unemployment tax in
stable industries, and base pro
perty tax on business on the
amount of income. Not to men
tion the plea that .congress set
up a body to provide loans for
the purchase of machinery,
equipment and buildings.
* # $
It would seem that the little
business men might just as well
have written in their ideas to
FI)K. They would have achieved
as much unanimity as they have
up to (kite. And in addition
they would not have become
the laughing stock of their
friends by all trying to talk at
once.
(P C me ralft
Reporters
Ken Kittley _ Dorothy Meyer
Leonard Jermain Eugene Snyder
Rill Scott Dorothy Burke
Muriel Beckman Patricia Erikson
Betty Jane Thompson Catherine Taylor
Bill Grant Merrill Moran
Dick Litfin Wen Brooks
Bill Ralston Parr Aplin
Gordon Ridgeway Barbara Stallcup
Betty Hamilton Glenn Hassehooth
Rita Wright George l.uoma
Elizabeth Ann Jones
Thursday Night Desk Staff
Bill Cummings
Corriene Antrim Jitmm Goodwin
Marge Finnegan Phil Bladine
Thursday Night Staff
Chief Night Editor this issue:
Bill Kentz
Assistant Chief Night Editors:
Da\ul Compton
Assistant
Barbara Stallcup Beulah Johnson
Bill Phelps Amey Wilson
Rose Bud Bakery (N ods are as Dainty. Fresh
and Pure as their name implies.
\ud
BAKERY
Phone 245 02 W. Broadway
MYSTERY
HISTORY
uiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiimmiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinmmiiiniiiiiiiiimininmmi
By
GLENN HASSELROOTH
“The Devil and Daniel Web
ster,’’ by Stephen Vincent Ben
et, which won the O. Henry
memorial award for the best
short story of 1937 is now avail
able in two collections, “Thir
teen O’clock,” which contains
13 of Mr. Benet’s stories, and
the O. Henry prize collection,
edited by Harry Hausen.
Mr. Benet writes poetry as
well as fiction, but his stories
bear a stamp of honesty and
reality that is not hindered by
the poetic influence. Frequent
ly, when a poet turns from
verse to prose, he finds himself
unable to escape the metrical
flourishes he has developed.
Mr. Benet, however, tells his
tales like a born story teller.
To prove to you that most
people will be interested in “The
Devil and Daniel Webster” we
might tell you that it was the
Saturday Evening Post that
first published it on October 24,
1936. It still may be out in the
woodshed, tucked away in that
pile of dusty, rain-soaked mag
azines. You never can tell. . . .
Alexander Woollcott, who
frequently goes “quietly mad”
over the books he read's, is
turning temporarily to a new
field. He will act—yes, act!—a
role in a forthcoming Broad
way play by S. N. Behrman.
Mr. Behrman has written a
number of hits, and if the Town
Crier turns out to be as good an
actor as he is a critic, Mr.
Woollcott may not get back to
his business of read-and-recom
mend as soon as he intends.
Prospective writers will find
it to their advantage to read
two articles published last
month in the Saturday Review
of Literature. “Those College
Writing Courses” by Edith Mir
rielees in the January 15 issue
discusses trends and effects in
the writings of amateurs.
This article is not exactly
heartening to the novice. Nor
is “The Professional Writer” by
W. Somerset Maugham in the
January 29 number. Miss Mir
rielees teaches English at Stan
■ •••••ft • • « t !..».•
Have Tour Eyes
Examined Here
And be assured of safe
comfortable, efficient
vision for the coming
year.
J. ^ wj. xj. tj-. i j.. tj..
i.j-v*j-'x1 rm -ir'k'’m'*jc'j 'ftt'i^'j
VL \
Established in Eugene 1921
Dr. Royal Qick
OPTOmETRlST
itT..n™rUri TJi-'Tfro r’1" — Phim. lfiS>) — 1058 Willamette St.
CORSAGES
for the
MILITARY BALL
-£
PHONE
ti.
3018
Orchids and camellias,
Gardenias and roses
Or flowers for her hair.
Maroon carnations for tux
lapels.
COLLEGE FLOWER SHOP
Across from Sigma Chi
• fcJL. wj. wj. wJj >-J.
ford, and Mr. Maugham has
contributed at least one classic
to world literature, so what they
have to say can be relied upon.
« *
Now that the shouting about
the “best books of 1937 is al
most over, we should like to of
fer our choice, not for the best
novel, biography, history, or
memoirs published last year,
but for the “most funniest book
of 1937“—“The Education of
Hyman Kaplan” by Leonard Q.
Ross.
Vot an adjucashun! Ve big
de pottment, ve gutting voise.
You should readink abot Hymie
Keplun ven he go to night
night school with all kinds antu
siasin. Van he go dere he loin
ink how to spall, inakink rasita
tions, preetice vocapulery in
book and goink to blackboard
and puttink on, saying ok, liow
to oomparink a high-dess man
like Shaksbeer mit a Tante
vat’s de minnick from “A room
is goink arond.”
He making som mistakes, hot
he ask plenty kvestions. He
making fine frans, netcheral!
He Writink mit two fontain
pans the hardest xreises by dip
tinking. Absolutel magnifi
cent!!! (And ve puttink three
haxclimation points for Hymie.)
He desoives dein.
Ve don’t vantink tall you too
much abot Mr. Kaplan, bot he’s
got vot it takes. He knowink
lots tings better dan voids, bot
he’s pratty foist-class, ufcawss. «•
Now dat you have readink de
noose-peppers, vy not readink
bot Hymie? Hau Kay!
YOUR ARROW SHIRT STORE
DUDLEY FIELD SHOP
On the Campus
POMEROY BROTHERS
ON YOUR
NEXT DATE
Wear an Arrow
Starched Collar
You’ll be amazed to
see how muck a
detachable white
starched collar can do
for your appearance.
Try Duncan, most
favored by young
men. 25c each
arrow shirts, ties, handkerchiefs s underwear
YOUR ARROW SHIRT STORE
IN EUGENE
ERIC MERRELL’S
cARROW
COLLARS