Editing Company store (section)

== Company stores outside the United States ==
===Mexico===

In Mexico, during the [[Porfiriato]] period (late 1800 to early 1900), the "[[:es:Tienda_de_raya|tiendas de raya]]" (company stores) were a prominent symbol of labor and peasant exploitation. These stores, operated by the owners of haciendas or factories, sold essential items to workers, often at inflated prices and typically paying with vouchers instead of cash. This kept workers in a continuous debt cycle to the hacienda or company, binding them almost like slaves to the land or industrial work without the possibility of escaping poverty.

A notable instance of the oppressive nature of tiendas de raya occurred in the early 1900s at [[Río Blanco, Veracruz]], home to Mexico's largest cotton mill. Workers there were paid in scrip, which could only be used at the company's store. In 1907, textile workers, fed up with this system, went on [[Strike action|labor strike]] and attacked and looted the company store. The Mexican military responded harshly, gunning down many of the strikers. Despite the tragic violence, the aftermath saw the opening of more retail outlets in Río Blanco, as if to reinforce the tienda de raya system.<ref>{{cite book |author=Turner, John Kenneth |url=https://archive.org/details/barbarousmexico00turnuoft |title=Barbarous Mexico |date=1910 |publisher=Chicago, Kerr |edition=Reissued by University of Texas Press, 1969 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/barbarousmexico00turnuoft/page/169 169]–174}}</ref>

From the earliest insurrections of the Mexican revolution, led and promoted by the [[Mexican Liberal Party]], the looting and destruction of the tiendas de raya became key symbolic and strategic actions. With the actual outbreak of the [[Mexican Revolution]] in 1910, this resentment intensified. The deep social discontent, built up after years of exploitation, was primarily directed towards these stores and their managers.

Finally, in 1915, Venustiano Carranza, one of the revolutionary leaders and eventual president of Mexico, took decisive action against this oppressive system. By his order, the tiendas de raya were eliminated across the country, marking a significant shift in the fight for social and economic justice. This act was intended not only to relieve the direct economic exploitation of workers but also to break down the economic power that large landowners and businessmen held over the working class.

===Hawaii===
Possibly the first company store in the world was in [[Hawaii]]. [[William Northey Hooper|William Hooper]] started Hawaiiʻs first sugar plantation in 1835 at [[Koloa]], on the island of [[Kauai]]. He hired 23 Hawaiian locals and paid them in a cardboard scrip, notated in various amounts. The scrip could only be exchanged for merchandise at his store.<ref>{{cite book|author=Takaki, Ronald  |title=Pau Hana- Plantation Life and Labor in Hawaii- 1835-1920|url=https://archive.org/details/pauhana00rona |date=1983|edition= Paperback Edition, 1985|pages= [https://archive.org/details/pauhana00rona/page/7 7]|publisher=Univ of Hawaii Press}}</ref>