ABSTRACT
Co-operative stores were intended to be practical embodiments of the ideals of the co-operative movement, which promoted co-operation for mutual benefit, rather than competition for individual gain. In co-operative enterprises any surpluses, rather than being kept by owners, were shared with members. Members joined a Co-operative Society by investing in a share, and they could then democratically participate in running the Society, receiving interest on share capital, and a dividend based on spending. The Society also funded co-operative activities and kept a reserve for development and expansion. With increasing co-operative production of goods and provision of services, co-operation thus offered an alternative to the capitalist model, with the radical intention that capitalism would ultimately be displaced. Ghost signs from Co-operative enterprises are physical traces of a sustained, organised political project to bring about an alternative society, in which, as Yeo puts it “through association for exchange (co-operative societies/stores) members would use what they produced and produce what they used, making capital into a hired servant of theirs …” (Yeo 1988, p. 1).
