The Co-Op Supermarket, which is attempting to pull itself out of debt, has formed a cheque cashing facility as part of the latest roll out of services it's offering to customers.

The supermarket will process any third-party cheque up to a maximum of $2,000, payroll cheques up to $2,000 from qualifying businesses, and cheques drawn on a US bank up to a maximum of $500. Customers will be charged a fee based on the type and the amount of the cheque.

Customers don't have to buy groceries at the Union St. supermarket to cash a cheque. However the supermarket will process a third-party cheque without charge if the customer spends at least one-third of the amount cashed on groceries.

General Manager Harrison Isaac, Sr. said the facility, which will be incorporated as The Co-op Financial & Domestic Services Ltd., is an attempt to bring more customers into the supermarket.

"It's remarkable how many people want to dodge the bank lines and come here,'' he said.

Mr. Isaac is currently working on plans to allow customers to pay their bills for about 200 companies at the supermarket.

The new services are part of a business plan to pull the supermarket out of debt. Mr. Isaac said when he took over as general manager one year ago the co-op was at the brink of insolvency and was losing customers.

"Since then we have doubled our gross sales and we are trying to stabilise ourselves,'' he said. "We are doing it with the support of our creditors and staff. It's an achievement that we are still here and exist as a viable entity.'' He said the co-op had paid off some of its creditors and has been operating on a cash basis with others. The customers are also starting to come back to the co-op, which has 1,300 members.

"We have literally put millions into the economy through our purchases,'' he said.

The company's 14 full time and 16 part time staff have also put in hours of volunteer labour into setting up some of the new services at the co-op Mr.

Isaac said. That includes a new deli and the banking facility.

"It's a true workers co-operative to help us stay alive,'' he said. "We had to identify streams of income that didn't cost us any money. That's what we needed to do to service the debt while still running the store. It has taken us a year to do it, but we got it done.'' The supermarket also offers a 24-hour photo processing drop off service. The co-op collects a fee from a local photo processor that does the work. It sells bus and ferry tickets. It will soon offer a dry-cleaning drop off service as well.

A special card offers regular customers who buy goods for seven consecutive weeks a seven percent rebate which they can use on purchases in the eight week.