"For the last two years, there's been a salaryfreeze at the Coop," Murphy said. "For some of theexecutives, it's been longer."

The Coop's situation is complicated by Murphy'sattempts to improve the store.

The store has renovated its stationerydepartment and rearranged its men's and women'sdepartments since Murphy took over.

Next week, half a dozen store cash registerswill be equipped with a new computer scanningsystem that will speed the pricing of items,Murphy said. A4 new computer system with scanners,customer service terminals and an inventorytracker should be operating by early December.

"We are anticipating that next week five or sixof the registers will have the equipment so we canpractice," Murphy said. "We'll know what's sellingand what's not on the inventory side."

The Coop's worst fear is that the recession haswrought a permanent reconfiguration of theSquare--one that may make it impossible for thestore to recover its losses.

And perhaps most troublesome for the Coop isthe possibility that shoppers themselves, withfading memories of the loose purse-stringed 1980s,have just become more frugal.

But Murphy remains optimistic.

"If I can get the volume back, we can get backthe profitability and the rebate," said Murphy."We're going to do better.

And history bears out his optimism. When theeconomy stalled in 1970, the rebate fell to twopercent. But within two years, the rebate hadrebounded along with the economy