Coop Rebate

Harvard Cooperative Society members will receive a 9.3 per cent rebate on last year's expenditures, the same refund The Coop gave last year.

The rebate checks, which students began to pick up yesterday, total over $2 million. James A. Argeros, general manager of the Coop, said yesterday.

He added that the Coop's efficient and healthy operation accounts for the size of the rebate. "I think we run a very good operation, and our large membership proves that we are doing something right," he said.

Argeros, however, discounted the importance of the nation's inflation rate--at least 12 or 13 per cent over the past year--which has eroded the real value of the rebate checks.

Signs Bright

The Coop recently passed the 100,000 membership mark, just before its one hundredth anniversary this spring. This membership figure represents a large increase over last year's total of 87,000 members.

Since it is a cooperative society, the Coop must return the profits it makes from sales to its members.

Profits from non-members' purchases become part of the Coop's retained earnings, which the store uses for operating expenses. The Coop has no investments, Argeros added.

Members picking up their checks yesterday at the Harvard Square store had mixed reactions. "I had no idea I spent this much," one unidentified Coop member said. Another Coop patron, Alexander Pierpont '83 said after he received his $27.00 check. "The Coop is my life--I thought I deserved more this."