• Mobile Shops Solve Building Problem .
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At the end of the counter a girl may sit in comfort at a built-in cash desk and attend to coupon-clipping.
Electric power for interior lighting is supplied from batteries cradled between the chassis frame-members. At the
pECAUSE of the difficulty of building
shops to serve new housing estates, Scottish co-operative societies are taking renewed interest in the mobile shop. That illustrated has been delivered to Musseiburgh and Fisherruw Co-operative Society and has proved so satisfactory that the society has ordered a further two mobile shops.
The S.M.T. Sales and Service concern, of Edinburgh, built the bodywork, which is mounted on a Scammell dropframe trailer chassis. The body is 22 ft. long, 7 ft. 6 ins, wide and 7 ft. 6 ins, high under the lantern roof, which extends for the whole of the length of the semi-trailer. Normal coachbuilding practice has been followed in the construction of. the framework, which is panelled outside with aluminium and inside with plywood.
On the near side in the centre, halfdoors open to give access to a fulllength glass-fronted counter. When open, the lower door serves as a platform for those standing at the counter and the upper door rises to form a canopy. On the off side there are display cabinets and shelves to carry a large quantity of goods without risk of movement in transit. There are also a large bin for potatoes and a rack for other vegetables. rear of the shop is a door through which loading may be carried on.
Under the Society's scheme of operation, a Bedford tractor hauls the shop to sites specially leased for the purpose, and it is left there during business hours. Meanwhile, the tractor is employed economically on the delivery of coal supplies.
Since this prototype mobile shop made its appearance, the S.M.T. Sales and Service organization haa received an order for three similar vehicles for St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Association, Ltd., Edinburgh, and a prototype i3 being built for the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society.