Coop Raises Member Rebates

Members of the Harvard Coop will get a slightly larger piece of the pie than they’re used to—a 6 percent rebate on purchases for the last fiscal year, which ended June 30.

The rebate rose from the 5 percent offered in fiscal 2003, despite a 2.8 percent decrease in sales in a “soft retail environment,” according to a Coop press release yesterday.

“The rebate is the foundation of the Coop,” said Coop President Jeremiah P. Murphy ’73. “The whole concept of the cooperative is that you share the profit.”

“We have had a 5 percent rebate for the past few years before this year’s 6 percent rebate, and we hope business continues to pick up even more,” said Murphy. “We hope to go forward on that.”

Despite a drop in sales at the Coop, total income before rebate and income taxes increased to $1,932,796 and paid membership rose to 66,570 by year’s end.

The rebate, which applies to purchases at any of the six Coop locations, has been in existence since the establishment of the Coop in 1882. Each year, the rate is set by the board of directors of the Coop. A portion of the profits derived from business with members is distributed proportionally according to the amount of individual purchases.

This year the average member will receive approximately $20, Murphy said. About 20,000 of the total membership consists of undergraduate or graduate students of either Harvard or MIT.

Rebate checks were available at the Coop store location starting yesterday. Checks will also be available by mail upon request, and unclaimed checks will be mailed to permanent home addresses in December.

Members can check the exact value of their rebate on the Coop website, and an e-mail will be sent out to members in the coming days.

This past year, the amount the Coop gave back to the community through donations and rebates exceeded $1,000,000, according to the press release. This goes toward such student activities as the Freshman Outdoor Program and the Undergraduate Council. Members can also endorse their rebate checks back to the Coop to be used for charity.

“The message is that this money is for [the students],” said Murphy, who stressed that the Coop is the students’ bookstore. Murphy said that more business means greater returns to the community.

“This is your bookstore,” said Murphy. “We cannot always guarantee the lowest price, but we have everything that a student needs. It is about traditional loyalty as well as getting your money back.”

But some students said that the rebates do not provide any extra motivation to use the Coop.

“I use the Coop because it’s the one stop to get all the books,” said Michael P. Etzel ’06 of Eliot House. “The rebate is so small compared to all the money I spent for textbooks, it really is insignificant in my going to the Coop.”

The Coop is not the only Harvard Square bookstore to offer bonuses for purchases; for instance, the Harvard Book Store offers an annual sale for frequent buyers.