wholesaler's truck. The latter practice is also coramon among other 

 large lot receivers such as chain stores. 



Some less direct procedures for minimizing costs have been initi- 

 ated such as preventive maintenance on owned trucks, loading trucks as 

 full as possible and arranging for return hauls, and the use of driver 

 logs or mechanical recorders to effect greater regulation over trucks 

 which are enroute. 



The degree to which wholesale grocers and chain stores can apply 

 all or some of the above methods of improveraient in physical operations 

 depends upon the unique circumstances surrounding each individual bust 

 nessc Some warehouses are located in areas where there is traffic 

 congestion and generally poor facilities for operation of large trucks. 

 Older warehouses are not readily adaptable to new methods of order as- 

 sembling. Innumerable physical as well as economic problems, confront 

 established wholesale grocers and chain stores when innovations are 

 required by changing times. Generally speaking, wholesale marketing 

 is a very competitive field and by the fact that this competition 

 exists it can be assumed that those who do not function efficiently 

 will be forced either to revise their methods of operation or go out 

 of business. 



'iVholesale grocers and chain stores purchase the great bulk of the 

 domestic pack of canned tuna from processors. These purchases are 

 stored in the respective warehouses of each buyer. The bulk of the 

 cases of canned tuna purchased are stored in that section of the ware- 

 house assigned to reserve canned commodities. When additional canned 

 tuna is needed in the order assembling area it is brought forward from 

 the reserve sotorces, and placed in selection lines according to its 

 bulk and prospective turnover. Canned tuna and tunalike products are 

 handled in an identical manner to hundreds of other canned commodi- 

 ties sold by wholesalers or distributed from chain store warehouses. 

 Therefore, any improvement in the overall physical operation of ware- 

 housing will in some degree improve the marketing of canned tuna and 

 tunalike products. The many other improvements in the over- all job 

 of wholesaling which have been previously mentioned are also tending 

 to aid the marketing of the products of the tuna industry. 



Retail grocers' marketing procedures have undergone many physi- 

 Cc^l changes -vdthin a relatively short period of years. The change 

 from the small service grocery store on the ccrner to the hugh super 

 market type grocery that occupies perhaps an entire city block and 



383 



