From the archives of the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre:
If an army marches on its stomach so too must an army of workers in a budding community such as Timmins in the early 20th Century. No matter the circumstances or nature of their work, people needed to eat!
Some unscrupulous merchants keen to capitalize on this fact inflated their prices and routinely fleeced the consumer at every opportunity. Needless to say the working class in the early days really felt the pinch; however, a food revolution was on the way.
Relief came in the form of the Co-operative movement which took root in the community in 1926 when the Worker’s Co-operative of New Ontario was formally organized. Co-op stores sprang up in Timmins, Schumacher and Connaught challenging the greedy grocer’s long held monopoly. Through their membership programs and in the spirit of solidarity, stores not only offered groceries at reasonable prices but also joint ownership entitled patrons to a share of its profits at the year’s end. Later on, in the austerity stricken days of WWII, the average patron of the Co-op received a leg up in the form of dividends which amounted to a free order every three months.
For those who’d like to know, prices advertised in May 1940 were 27 cents a pound for a rolled rib roast, carrots were 19 cents a bunch, and a perennial favourite, honey dipped doughnuts, were 24 cents a dozen — the makings of a lovely meal, wouldn’t you say?
Each week, the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre provides TimminsToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.
Find out more of what the Timmins Museum has to offer at www.timminsmuseum.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here
