Shops opened up in areas beyond Woolwich and house-building took place beyond the parish boundaries in Abbey Wood and Eltham.

To support its retail activities the RACS established bakeries, bought farms and piggeries and built food processing factories.

It owned stables and railway wagons, an abattoir, dairy, a frozen food plant, a fleet of coaches and two hotels on the Isle of Wight.

The RACS had an Education Department, ran classes and sports days, opened reading rooms, supported the Woodcraft Folk and the Co-operative Women's Guild, youth clubs at Falconwood and Coldharbour, a cricket club, orchestras and at one point two choirs conducted by (Sir) Michael Tippett.

In July 1888, the society helped Frank Didden raise funds to establish Woolwich Polytechnic, supporting a sports meeting held in Charlton Park.

Its motto was "Each for All and All for Each"; it employed a Political Secretary, published magazines and newspapers (such as Comradeship and The Wheatsheaf)[9] and housed Basque refugees from the Spanish Civil War (see also Milk for Spain).

[10] As well as the usual co-op dividend to its customer-members, the RACS also paid a "bonus to labour" – for instance paying the tradesmen building the Bostall Estate a halfpenny an hour above the trade union rate.

Overall control of the RACS rested with a full-time Management Committee elected by society members under proportional representation.

Greater customer affluence and competition from supermarket chains such as Sainsbury's were changing the society's market – its size and democratic ownership structure made it slow to adapt[citation needed].

[citation needed] In 1985, after a century of expansion in size and scope the RACS avoided collapse by 'transferring its engagements' to the national Co-operative Wholesale Society.

The two large landmark buildings at the west end of Powis Street in Woolwich are evocative of the co-operative movement that was such a major force in this town.

The large, metal-framed windows emphasise the horizontal lines in the faience-tiled gable, set between two end towers.