{{One source, date=December 2015 Consumers Cooperative Services (CCS) was a

white collar White collar may refer to: * White-collar worker, a salaried professional or an educated worker who performs semi-professional office, administrative, and sales-coordination tasks, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor ...

consumers cooperative A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a fo ...

in New York City which ran a chain of cooperative restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores. It was founded in 1920 by a group of socially minded women, among them Mary E. Arnold, Mabel Reed,

Dorothy Kenyon Dorothy Kenyon (February 17, 1888 – February 12, 1972) was a New York (state), New York attorney at law, attorney, judge, feminist and political activist in support of civil liberties. During the era of McCarthyism, McCarthyite persecution, she ...

, Mary LaDame and Ruth True. Starting with one cafeteria, the association opened additional branches in the financial district of New York. It was operating eleven restaurants by 1935. In 1944 CCS became active in the grocery field, taking over four grocery co-ops from other cooperative associations. The grocery stores were never as successful as had been hoped. In 1952 there was only one left, in Greenwich Village. The number of cafeterias declined after the Second World War as well. There were seven in 1945 and four in 1952. By that time the bakery was also discontinued. In spite of these developments, CCS grew in membership from 4,500 in 1935 to 5,536 in 1945, 5,536 in 1946, and 8,291 in 1948. Annual sales reached a peak of $2,049,839 in 1949. CCS declined during the 1950s, and is no longer in existence. CCS was a

progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...

consumer cooperative, which took "the larger view in things cooperative". It was active in consumer and cooperative education and took a lead in establishing new consumer cooperatives on the

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

. CCS used part of its accumulated profits (

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

funds) to build a 12-story cooperative apartment complex in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

with 66 apartments which was opened in 1935. The cooperative song

The Battle Hymn of Cooperation Sung to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (which itself was an adaptation of "John Brown's Body", a marching song of the American Civil War), The Battle Hymn of Cooperation was widely popular throughout the American consumers' cooperativ ...

originated with employees of CCS who wrote it for a revue in 1932.

References

* Florence E. Parker, ''The First 125 Years. A History of Distributive and Service Cooperation in the United States, 1829-1954'' (Superior, WI: Cooperative Publishing Association / Cooperative League of the USA, 1956). Business organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 1920 Cooperatives based in New York (state)