History of the United Co-operative Baking Society Ltd. : $b A fifty years' record 1869–1919Reid, William
History
History of the United Co-operative Baking Society Ltd. : $b A fifty years' record 1869–1919
Reid, William
United Co-operative Baking Society, Ltd., Glasgow
For a long time it had been the wish of the manager and directors of the
Baking Society to introduce a natural working day into the bread trade,
and they had done their best some years earlier to have the matter taken
up by the societies and the public, but without success. Now, in the
autumn of 1905, another attempt was made, a squad of bakers beginning
work at 9 a.m.; the bread thus baked being delivered on the following
morning. A number of the societies in Glasgow and neighbourhood were
induced to take up the sale of this bread, with the result that the
sales speedily rose; but after a trial which lasted several months the
scheme was abandoned, as the directors found that instead of helping the
general work of delivery it was proving a hindrance to that work.
This decision of the committee met with a considerable amount of
opposition from delegates to the quarterly meeting, but the directors
were not in a position to do other than they had done. The real obstacle
was to be found in the fact that the public insisted on having new
bread, and with a number of the bakers beginning work late in the day
for the production of “natural working day” bread, as it had been named,
there was not labour enough in the early morning to meet the demand for
new bread by ten o’clock. Thus the second attempt of the Baking Society
directors to introduce a natural working day into the baking trade came
to naught, through no fault of theirs, but because of a public who would
insist on having bread steaming from the ovens.
PROPAGANDA AND PUBLICITY.
During these years the directors continued to adopt every reasonable
method of keeping the Federation and its productions before the public.
They took advantage of every opportunity offered by exhibitions to show
the quality of goods which were produced by the Society; they exhibited
also at shows, and were occasionally successful in securing prizes,
although the rush conditions under which their bread had to be produced
in order to cope with the ever-increasing demands of the societies did
not provide the conditions necessary for producing bread of show
quality.
At the same time the entertaining of women’s guilds, conference
associations, and other Co-operative organisations was further
developed, and many Co-operators who before had but a very hazy idea of
the size and importance of the U.C.B.S. were enlightened as a result of
these visits. The cake shows, also, held annually, were excellent
propaganda. Here, inside one hall, were to be found specimens of all the
productions of the three bakeries; and these productions came latterly
to include many novelties which were not to be found in everyday use, as
well as the more common specimens of cakes, buns, bread, etc., and a
large variety of biscuits. Thus the cake show came to be regarded as the
annual exhibition of Bakery productions, which indeed it was, and it was
one of the most eagerly anticipated Co-operative functions of the year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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