The December 20th Doard of Trade Journel carried an article which summarised information derived from the Census of Distribution carried out in 1961 as far as self-service trading was concerned, The tendencies revealed are cf considerable interest to the British labour movement especially those working USDAW and the Co-op movements The former must be concerned because of the much greater rate of exploitation revealed anc the latter will note that the Co-op movement has lost its previous predominant position in this field of trading, ‘Ye have taken extracts from the articles
*,o0ln 1961, solf-service sales exceeded £500m., 2% times the level of 1957. Allowing for non-respondents to the main census, over 9,500 stores were operated wholly or partly on self-service lines late AM in 1961, against nearly 4,000 in 1957, fewer than 500 in 1950, and 10 in 1947.2 Dy the spring of 1963, the numbers were over 11,000 and grow ing at a rate exceeding a hunéred a months SHLF-SENVICH SHCPS 1957. 1961
Number Turnover WNunber Turnover Co-op Socioties 2,003 118m. 33800 199r6 Grocery shop: Multiples with more
than ten branches TTL A9nM. 2,569 212m.
it " 5 to 9 TT 4 4 te
Indpendent 431 20me 2,065 56m. Others T17 24m. 22 elms Total 39922 207m. 95420 0 Hetine
“The share of different forms of organisation in the total of self-service business was very different from 1957. Leaving aside the rolatively unimportant selfservece trading outside the grocery field (including department storest food halls), the share of co-operative societies was 61% of the total in 1957, but only 39% in 1961, Larger multiples (with 10 or more branches) had about 28% of the turnover in 19575 but 42% in 1961. Retallers with 1 to 9 branches accounted for a about 11% ..in 1957 end 20% in 1961.
"Solf-service grocers achieved 20% of all grocers! sales but accounted for only 16% of persors engaged; and thoy were less dependent on part-time staff than counter—service shops — under one in five selfservice staff were part-timers against more than one in four in othersee
Ntaverage sales per person cngaged (counting 2 part-timers as 1 full-time worker) were £6,200 in self-service shops against less than £4,700 in other grocers. ut, as in 1957, the smaller self-service stores had lower sales per person engaged than did other stores of the game size.
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‘For the most part, sales por employee in co-op grocery shops are ‘higher than in multiples, largely because of the greater importance of" .-, sales of cigarettes in cO-op branches.oe-kzceptionally, sales per empl oyee in multiple branches with turnover above £100,000 were highor than those in corresponding co-op branches; this was truo in both self-service and counter-service shops, Among independent retailers, except the maallest, sales per person ongaged were for the most véry much higher in selfservice stores than in counter~service shops,"