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 working- 
class 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. 
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