After 131 Years of Rebates, Coop Will Instead Offer Member Discount

The Harvard Coop will soon provide members with an immediate discount on purchases in place of the annual rebate the store has offered since 1882.

“The Coop is finalizing a shift to an upfront discount for paid-up members as opposed to a back-end rebate,” Coop President Jeremiah P. Murphy '73 wrote in an email to The Crimson.

This year, Coop members received rebate checks along with a note detailing that the discount will become effective at the start of fiscal year on June 29, 2014.

Murphy said that the change stems from the findings of extensive surveys, which suggested that Coop members would prefer to receive an upfront markdown rather than wait until the store determines rebates at the end of each year.

“We did some focus groups and what we really got out of those focus groups was that people really don’t know what they want the Coop to be in 10 years or 15 years,” said Cody R. Dean ’14, a member of the Coop Board of Directors. “But there were some small things that we could do to make it a little more relevant or a little more convenient without losing the tradition that the Coop has built for many hundreds of years now.”

Dean said that while the exact number has not been decided upon yet, the member discount will likely fall within the range of past rebate rates. However, while past rebate percentages have varied year to year, Dean said that the discount will likely be a fixed rate.

The member rebate has occupied a central role in the Coop’s structure since the organization’s founding in the late nineteenth century by a group of students and University professors who hoped to offer an alternative to the high prices offered elsewhere in Harvard Square.

As a cooperative society, the Coop is owned collectively by more than 55,000 members who purchase a $1 membership card in exchange for the value proposition historically offered in the form of the annual rebate.

Previous rebate percentages have reflected a number of factors including the economic climate, fluctuating between 0 and 8.9 percent since 1990 and most recently rising to 8.8 percent.

Due to the changing industry, the Coop has looked to revisit its role with the University and its members.

Murphy wrote that he believes an immediate reward will be more meaningful for members and will likely augment future membership numbers. He added that the Coop will issue a formal announcement to members once it finalizes the new discount program.

Dean said he views the policy switch as a means of reflecting the constant changes in the way students shop.

“We hope that it will attract people to shop at the Coop and maintain the institutional identity for students and alumni,” he said.

—Staff writer Nikki D. Erlick can be reached at nikki.erlick@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @nikkierlick.