Coop Enters Competition For Local Copy Trade

The Harvard Coop entered the Xerox copy sweepstakes in the Square last Thursday when it began offering Xeroxing and offset printing.

The Coop charges the same prices as the other copy businesses in the area: three cents for the first five copies, two cents for six to twenty copies, and one cent for copies exceeding twenty, but its prices are fractionally lower than its competition's because members will be entitled to a rebate on their copy purchases.

Little Market Effect

The introduction of the Coop Xerox service has apparently not affected the other Xerox businesses in the Square, at least initially. When surveyed, most of the other copy companies believed the Coop entry into the copy business would do little to change the complexion of the market.

"It's not going to affect us. Our prices are as cheap as theirs unless you have a Coop card, and the rebate on the Coop card amounts to nothing," Michael Doherty of Gnomon Copy said yesterday.

"It's a case of me-tooism," said James Jacobs, manager of the J. August Company, which last year initiated the 3-2-1 copy scale. He said that the Coop copy service had, if anything, resulted in an increase in his business.