Введение
Магазин, продающий почти исключительно сотрудникам определенной компании.
A company store is a retail store selling a limited range of food, clothing and daily necessities to employees of a company. It is typical of a company town in a remote area where virtually everyone is employed by one firm, such as a coal mine. In a company town, the housing is owned by the company but there may be independent stores there or nearby. Employee only company stores often accept scrip or non cash vouchers issued by the company in advance of periodic cash paychecks, and gives credit to employees before payday. Except in very remote areas, company stores in mining towns became scarcer after the miners bought automobiles and could travel to a range of stores. Even so, the stores could survive because they provided convenience and easy credit. Company stores served numerous additional functions, as well, such as a locus for the government post office, and as the cultural and community center where people could freely gather. Company stores were monopolistic institutions, funneling workers' incomes back to the owners of the company. This is because company stores often faced little or no competition for workers' earnings on account of their geographical remoteness, the inability and/or unwillingness of other nearby merchants (if any existed) to accept company scrip, or both. Prices, therefore, were typically high. Allowing purchases on credit enforced a kind of debt slavery, obligating employees to remain with the company until the debt was cleared. Regarding this reputation, economic historian Price V. Fishback wrote:
The company store is one of the most reviled and misunderstood of economic institutions. In song, folktale, and union rhetoric the company store was often cast as a villain, a collector of souls through perpetual debt peonage. Nicknames, like the "pluck me" and more obscene versions that cannot appear in a family newspaper, seem to point to exploitation. The attitudes carry over into the scholarly literature, which emphasizes that the company store was a monopoly. The songs Fishback mentions include the popular song "Sixteen Tons", which contains such lines as "Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cuz I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store."
Магазин компании — это розничный магазин, продающий ограниченный ассортимент продуктов питания, одежды и предметов первой необходимости сотрудникам компании. Это типично для поселка при компании в отдаленной местности, где практически все трудоустроены на одном предприятии, например, угольной шахте. В таком поселке жилье обычно принадлежит компании, но там или поблизости могут быть и независимые магазины. Магазины компании, обслуживающие только сотрудников, часто принимают скрип или неденежные ваучеры, выпущенные компанией авансом перед регулярной выплатой заработной платы, и предоставляют сотрудникам кредит до дня выплаты. За исключением очень отдаленных районов, магазины компании в шахтерских поселках стали реже встречаться после того, как шахтеры приобрели автомобили и получили возможность ездить в разные магазины. Тем не менее, магазины выживали, поскольку предлагали удобство и легкий доступ к кредиту. Магазины компании выполняли и множество других функций, например, служили почтовым отделением и были культурным и общественным центром, где люди могли свободно собираться. Магазины компании были монополистическими учреждениями, возвращавшими доходы рабочих владельцам компании. Это объясняется тем, что магазины компании часто сталкивались с малой или отсутствующей конкуренцией за заработок рабочих из-за их географической удаленности, неспособности и/или нежелания других близлежащих торговцев (если таковые имелись) принимать скрип компании, или и тем, и другим. Поэтому цены обычно были высокими. Предоставление покупок в кредит фактически вводило форму долгового рабства, обязывая сотрудников оставаться в компании до погашения долга. Об этой репутации экономический историк Прайс В. Фишбек писал:
A company store is a retail store selling a limited range of food, clothing and daily necessities to employees of a company. It is typical of a company town in a remote area where virtually everyone is employed by one firm, such as a coal mine. In a company town, the housing is owned by the company but there may be independent stores there or nearby. Employee only company stores often accept scrip or non cash vouchers issued by the company in advance of periodic cash paychecks, and gives credit to employees before payday. Except in very remote areas, company stores in mining towns became scarcer after the miners bought automobiles and could travel to a range of stores. Even so, the stores could survive because they provided convenience and easy credit. Company stores served numerous additional functions, as well, such as a locus for the government post office, and as the cultural and community center where people could freely gather. Company stores were monopolistic institutions, funneling workers' incomes back to the owners of the company. This is because company stores often faced little or no competition for workers' earnings on account of their geographical remoteness, the inability and/or unwillingness of other nearby merchants (if any existed) to accept company scrip, or both. Prices, therefore, were typically high. Allowing purchases on credit enforced a kind of debt slavery, obligating employees to remain with the company until the debt was cleared. Regarding this reputation, economic historian Price V. Fishback wrote:
The company store is one of the most reviled and misunderstood of economic institutions. In song, folktale, and union rhetoric the company store was often cast as a villain, a collector of souls through perpetual debt peonage. Nicknames, like the "pluck me" and more obscene versions that cannot appear in a family newspaper, seem to point to exploitation. The attitudes carry over into the scholarly literature, which emphasizes that the company store was a monopoly. The songs Fishback mentions include the popular song "Sixteen Tons", which contains such lines as "Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cuz I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store."
«Магазин компании — одно из наиболее осуждаемых и неправильно понимаемых экономических институтов. В песнях, народных сказках и риторике профсоюзов магазин компании часто изображался как злодей, похититель душ посредством вечной долговой кабалы. Прозвища, такие как «выжми меня» и более непристойные, которые не могут быть опубликованы в семейной газете, указывают на эксплуатацию. Такое отношение переносится и в научную литературу, которая подчеркивает монопольный характер магазина компании». В числе песен, упомянутых Фишбеком, — популярная песня «Sixteen Tons», в которой есть такие строки: «Святой Петр, не зови меня, потому что я не могу пойти. Я отдал свою душу магазину компании».
A company store is a retail store selling a limited range of food, clothing and daily necessities to employees of a company. It is typical of a company town in a remote area where virtually everyone is employed by one firm, such as a coal mine. In a company town, the housing is owned by the company but there may be independent stores there or nearby. Employee only company stores often accept scrip or non cash vouchers issued by the company in advance of periodic cash paychecks, and gives credit to employees before payday. Except in very remote areas, company stores in mining towns became scarcer after the miners bought automobiles and could travel to a range of stores. Even so, the stores could survive because they provided convenience and easy credit. Company stores served numerous additional functions, as well, such as a locus for the government post office, and as the cultural and community center where people could freely gather. Company stores were monopolistic institutions, funneling workers' incomes back to the owners of the company. This is because company stores often faced little or no competition for workers' earnings on account of their geographical remoteness, the inability and/or unwillingness of other nearby merchants (if any existed) to accept company scrip, or both. Prices, therefore, were typically high. Allowing purchases on credit enforced a kind of debt slavery, obligating employees to remain with the company until the debt was cleared. Regarding this reputation, economic historian Price V. Fishback wrote:
The company store is one of the most reviled and misunderstood of economic institutions. In song, folktale, and union rhetoric the company store was often cast as a villain, a collector of souls through perpetual debt peonage. Nicknames, like the "pluck me" and more obscene versions that cannot appear in a family newspaper, seem to point to exploitation. The attitudes carry over into the scholarly literature, which emphasizes that the company store was a monopoly. The songs Fishback mentions include the popular song "Sixteen Tons", which contains such lines as "Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cuz I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store."
Гавайи.
Возможно, первый магазин компании в мире находился на Гавайях. Уильям Хупер основал первую сахарную плантацию на Гавайях в 1835 году в Колоа, на острове Кауаи. Он нанял 23 местных гавайца и выплачивал им зарплату картонными жетонами (скрипами) различного номинала. Эти жетоны можно было обменять только на товары в его магазине.