Читать книгу One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money - Harold Morse Dunphy - Страница 85

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A former merchant in a small town, who had lost his entire stock by fire, and had been unable to collect the insurance, conceived the idea of starting a co-operative store, without capital, and the plan worked so well that in a few years he was in a better condition financially than before the fire.

Fully realizing that the average store in the small town charges higher prices for inferior goods than the city stores ask for the better grades, and knowing the people of his community would be glad to be better served at a lower cost, he visited a wholesale house in the city, made arrangements for purchasing groceries and kindred lines at wholesale prices, when taken in considerable quantities. He then formed a sort of club or co-operative society of from 75 to 100 members, among his acquaintances and former patrons, agreeing to supply them with the better grades of goods at prices considerably less than those charged by the local stores.

He opened a little store room in the town for the distribution of these goods, each member paying cash for every item purchased, and, there being no necessity for bookkeeping or collections, he made a good profit on everything sold in this manner, suffered no losses, and in a short time controlled practically all the grocery trade in his town and the surrounding country. He often remarked that the fire which destroyed his former store was the best thing that could have happened to him, besides the benefit it brought to those in the community who co-operated with him in his enterprise, while he started on nothing.