Within a year of electing a president and secretary the
Wetaskiwin District Association of the United Farmers of Alberta was on the fast track to
building a business, and with very little capital. Although the volume of their
purchases had increased significantly, these transactions and services did not result in
much money going into a reserve account.
The reason for this was that the Association was doing a
lot for very little profit. The main commodities were salt, flour, sugar, apples, feed,
seed grain, and binder twine. It was not unusual for families to purchase
supplies that would last them six to twelve months. The charge for these goods was
the cost of the goods plus transportation expenses and a very small handling fee.
However minimal the proceeds were, the Association
was, in fact, very pleased with the results because every contact and transaction was a
good predictor of future sales for when they expanded their operations and opened a retail
store. They had built a good grassroots foundation for growing the Co-operative and
were confident that they would succeed.
At a general meeting held on November 16th, 1917 at the Bijou
Theatre in Wetaskiwin the attending district locals determined that they could no longer
operate from a boxcar on a railroad spur.
They decided to acquire a permanent store and apply to the Province to incorporate under
the Alberta Co-operative Association Act. The charter was signed by twenty farmers
who comprised the provisional Board of Directors. The name was modified to the
Wetaskiwin U.F.A. Co-operative Association Ltd.
By March 9th of 1918 at a special meeting an elected Board
of Directors was chosen. They were: Edward Schmidt, Hugh McGrandle, Edward
Rasmuson, Thomas Toreson, Victor Thompson, Edward Peterson, Carl Hanson, Fred Freeman,
A.B.(Burt) Evarts
The locals and the directors had raised $550 for working
capital and opened a store on West Railway Street in a building they rented from Jack
Walker for $30.00 per month. Mr. A.P. Moan became the Secretary Treasurer at a
salary of $1400 per year and he was instructed to take the $550.00 of share capital and
buy necessary fixtures and invest the balance in merchandize. They opened the store
to everyone. Local consumers got the choice produce brought in by the district
farmers and the balance was stored in tubs to later find its way to other markets.
The fixtures were a simple scale, hand
operated coffee grinder, cheese cutter, tobacco plug cutter that looked somewhat like a
small guillotine, a couple of hand scoops, wrapping string that hung from the ceiling,
brown wrapping paper and bags.
Goods that didn't fit on the shelves were simply placed in
an empty space around the store and displayed in the original sacks, barrels or boxes
that
they were shipped in. A dim light hung from the ceiling in a few places where
absolutely necessary and for the customer who came to visit, wait or loaf there would be a
barrel, crate or empty counter to sit on.
Mr. Moan's stock of canned tomatoes, prunes, syrup, lard,
flour, salt, sugar, mica axle grease, kerosene, tobacco and other basic grocery items sold
well. In fact sales were so brisk that the stock had to be replenished and an
assistant named Nestor Bequin, who had experience in retail merchandizing, was hired at
$90.00 per month. He handled the light produce and foods, while Mr. Moan handled the
livestock and heavier items mentioned above.
Mr. Moan
presented a manager's report in early 1918 indicated that he had handled eleven carloads
of livestock, four carloads each of seed oats and seed barley, 500 bushels of potatoes, a
carload of barbed wire and groceries (flour sugar, salt) valued at $20,012, produce
(hides, eggs, butter, wool) valued at $8,040. The livestock business was a sideline
and handled on the basis of cost only so the dollar volume of livestock transactions was
never entered into the store's turnover figures.
That same year brought an early winter and heavy prolonged
snows that buried all the grain stooks in the district. The Wetaskiwin Co-operative
had to bring in carloads of seed grain and feed.
By early 1919 and only a year since incorporation the
demand for goods and services had shown such significant increases that it became obvious
that the space on West Railway Street was inadequate so the Board of Directors started
searching for new premises.
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