ESSEN.

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Retail  Prices.
Groceries  and  other  Commodities.
In  the  matter  of  the  food  supply,  as  in  other  respects,  the  conditions  in
Essen  are  abnormal.  A  short  account  has  already  been  given  of  the  “  Supply
Stores  ”  founded  by  the  Krupp  firm  for  its  employees,  and  limited  to  them.  The
purchasers  receive  a  dividend  at  the  end  of  each  year’s  trading,  but  in  other
respects  the  stores  are  not  co-operative  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term,  since
they  are  run  entirely  by  the  firm  itself,  the  workmen  have  no  voice  in  the
management,  and  (as  the  trading  accounts  are  not  published)  there  is  no
evidence  as  to  the  extent  of  the  profits  or  the  proportion  thereof  which  is
returned  to  the  purchasers  in  the  form  of  dividends.
There  is  a  real  Co-operative  Society  in  the  town,  which  is  large  and
important,  for  in  August,  1906,  it  had  15  shops  and  5,882  members,  while  its
turnover  in  the  year  1905-6  was  £77,000.  It  is  stated  that  nearly  half  of  the
members  are  Krupp  workmen,  who  prefer  to  deal  with  a  society  in  whose
management  they  can  have  some  share.
The  Krupp  Supply  Stores  were  founded  in  1868,  and  were  originally
intended  only  for  the  employees  of  the  firm,  but  this  restriction,  which  was
never  completely  enforced,  was  abandoned  a  few  years  later.  For  nearly
20  years  the  shops  were  opened  to  all  inhabitants  of  Essen,  but  the  shopkeepers
of  the  town  constantly  complained  of  what  they  regarded  as  unfair  competition.
In  the  ’nineties  the  dividend  system  was  introduced,  but  only  for  the  Krupp
workmen  ;  other  purchasers  were  not  to  be  entitled  to  share  in  the  profits.
Then  in  1897  the  sales  were  limited  solely  to  the  Krupp  employees,  and  on  this
basis  the  stores  are  still  conducted.  Nevertheless,  the  prices  charged  in  the
Krupp  stores  to  a  large  extent  regulate  the  prices  of  private  traders.  Thus  the
officials  of  the  Co-operative  Society  admitted  that  they  have  to  direct  their
efforts  towards  keeping  their  prices  on  a  level  with  those  charged  by  the  Krupp
stores  ;  and  they  added  that  for  some  commodities—those  purchased  by  the
poorer  classes  of  workmen—the  Krupp  prices  were  not  infrequently  below
“  normal  ”  market  prices,  and  that  in  any  case  the  quality  of  the  commodities
sold  by  the  Krupp  stores  was  always  good.
With  the  36  general  Krupp  shops  (in  1905)  setting  prices  which  are
closely  followed  by  the  15  shops  of  the  Co-operative  Society,  the  other  workingclass
  shops  in  Essen  must  make  the  same  charges,  or  lower  ones  ;  at  any  rate
they  cannot  charge  higher  prices.  There  are  a  number  of  shops  which  do  charge
distinctly  lower  prices,  but  the  quality  of  the  goods  sold  by  them  to  the  poorest
classes  of  the  community  is  very  inferior.
The  Krupp  stores  sell  almost  everything  needed  in  a  household,  while  the
Co-operative  Society  deals  only  in  "  colonial  produce,”  bread,  miscellaneous
household  stores,  and  preserved  meats  of  various  kinds.  The  only  other
example  of  the  "  multiple  shop  ”  system  is  furnished  by  a  large  firm  with  ten
branches  in  various  parts  of  the  town.
Bread  is  sold  in  all  qualities,  shapes,  and  sizes,  and  both  according  to
weight  and  at  fixed  prices,  in  which  latter  case  the  quantity  varies  with  the
ruling  price  of  flour,  whether  rye  or  wheat.  Loaves  as  small  as  2  and  3  lb.  and
as  large  as  8,  9,  and  10  lb.  are  sold.  The  usual  retail  trader’s  price  for  the
coarsest  black  rye  bread  in  October,  1905,  was  4\d.  for  4  lb.,  grey  bread  cost
6£d.,  and  white  (pure  wheat)  bread  7\d.  to  8fc/.  for  4  lb.  The  price  of  black
bread  at  Krupp’s  stores  was  about  3d.  for  4  lb.  and  of  white  bread  7\d.  in
October,  1905.
The  qualities  of  coffee  chiefly  sold  cost  from  9fd.  to  1  Ad.  per  lb.,  but  there
are  inferior  qualities,  and  among  the  poor  roasted  barley,  sold  from  2\d.  to  2Id.
per  lb.,  is  much  used  as  a  substitute.  Sugar  here,  as  elsewhere,  varies  much  in
qualitv  and  price,  and  is  the  favourite  subject  of  competition  between  grocers.
The  usual  price  of  sugar  bought  by  working  people  was  2^d.  per  lb.  Fresh  butter
cost  from  Is.  Id.  to  Is.  3Jd.,  and  margarine,  of  which  there  was  a  large  sale,
from  Gd.  to  8£d.  The  kinds  of  cheese  mostly  eaten  are  Dutch,  Limburg  at  öd.
2  H  2

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