July. 1930] 



Operating Costs of Grain Stores 



Inventory: the value of stock on hand figured at market price or 

 original cost depending on which is the lowest. 



Cost of Goods Sold: includes original cost plus freight to railroad 

 station and after adjustment has been made for inventories at the be- 

 ginning and end of year. 



Net Sales or Total Sales: the amount received in exchange for 

 goods sold during a year, after adjustments have been made for goods 

 retiu'ned. 



Gross Margin: the difference between the cost of goods sold and 

 net sales. Small amounts of miscellaneous income were included in 

 this item. 



Net Income or Profit: the difference between gross margin and to- 

 tal costs; also referred to as net profit. 



Cash Sales: that pan of total sales for which cash is paid at the 

 time the transaction occurs. 



Credit Sales: that part of total sales which is not paid for in cash 

 at time of transaction. 



THE STATE SURVEY 



Of the 197 stores visited in the state survey. 107 could be classed 

 as feed stores and 90 as general merchandise stores. Often the gen- 

 eral merchandise store handled grain as a side issue, either as an ac- 

 commodation to its customers or because of the pressure of competi- 

 tion. Quite frequently it secured this grain in small amounts from 

 the local grain store. 



More comj^lete records were procured from the grain than from the 

 general merchandise stores. The latter made no effort to keep the 

 grain sales separate. The lack of a definite system of keeping records 

 was frequently evident. ^lany dealers had no record of current ex- 

 penses or tonnage handled. Neither did they realize that they had 



Table 1 — Gross Margin Variation of 171 Grain and General Merchandise 



Stores During 1926 



The average gross margin was 54.71 per ton and 11.29 per cent of sales. 



