Word: cooped
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...signed opinion piece on Page Two of the March 11 Crimson incorrectly asserted that prices at The Harvard Cooperative Society "are at the high end of the retail spectrum," that The Coop "is not saving its members money," that "retail markup for book sales is on the order of 100 percent," and that the Coop is "poorly managed...
...course, the Coop does provide some special services like selling obscure textbooks for classes ranging from semiotics to sanskrit and custom Lesley College notebooks, but why aren't these services provided at a real discount? That is the point of a cooperative society, anyway, and other stores seem to be able to sell at lower prices than the Coop and still make a profit...
Book sales are a good example. On the one hand, the Coop has a great selection and has to cope with the tremendous and varied demands for course books from MIT, Harvard, Lesley, and the various Harvard professional schools. But the typical retail markup for book sales is on the order of 100 percent. The Coop sells books at retail--or 10 percent off, counting the rebate. Many bookstores make a considerable profit selling at 10 or 20 percent off. If the Coop is not making a profit, what exactly is it doing with our money...
...DIFFICULT to discover why the Coop can't offer its members a better discount. Unlike most co-ops, it does not regularly send its members financial statements. In fact, in order to find out anything about the Coop's financial status you have to set up an appointment with the General Manager's secretary--not a surefire way to keep thousand of Coop members abreast of their society's doings...
...Coop being poorly managed? If you're a member, you just have no way of knowing: your co-op is being managed incognito. But it doesn't have to be this way. The directors of the Coop are elected by its members. And while political activism may no longer be chic, even the most pragmatic aspirant to Harvard Business School should be able to get excited about a little economic activism. In theory at least, if enough people are interested in a cooperative society that will actually save them money, we could actually make the Coop cooperative...