Harvard Coop members will receive a 6 per cent rebate on all merchandise purchased last year, Howard W. Davis, general manager of the Coop, said yesterday.

The refund for the fiscal year, which ended June 30, 1973, is 1 per cent higher than the previous year's rebate of 5 per cent. The Coop will begin distribution of the refund checks to its members on October 9.

The Coop expects to return $610,00 to its members this year, a total 31 per cent higher than last year's rebate funds.

Davis credited the rebate increase to greater sales and reduced shoplifting during the last year. Sales for the 1972-73 fiscal year totaled $18.9 million, up 12.8 per cent over the previous year's total.

Quality Merchandise

Davis said that shoplifting in the past year accounted for 2.3 per cent of the Coop's loss in revenue. This figure is "well within" the national average for department store revenue lost as a result of theft, he added.

Davis maintained that the Coop's purchase of more "quality merchandise at lower prices," combined with more "spirited" employees, led to the store's increased net earnings. He added that sales showed improvement in all departments and that no particular department could be credited with making an extraordinary profit.

Last fall the Coop equalized its rebate on cash and charge for the first time in order or meet new state regulations that prohibited the addition of extra finance charges on credit purchases.

"If it weren't for these regulations, I would like to see cash members receive a 2 per cent greater purchasing refund than charge members," Davis said.

Davis stated that sales this year during July and August are up 12 per cent over business in the same period last year, with last Monday's sales of $160,000 setting a new Coop record for total sales in one day. He said that the Coop has 5000 more members now than it had last year at this time.

"Unless some catastrophe occurs, another increase in customer refunds should be expected for the upcoming year," Davis said. He predicted that the mid-October opening of a newly-constructed print department would bring additional profits to the store and greater rebates on members' purchases.