24 N. H. Agri. Experiment Station [Bulletin 251 



waits for it before paying the bill. The amount of time given varied 

 from 7 to 90 clays for 73 stores, while 47 stores had no time limit. 



PRICE ANALYSIS 



When a customer purchases a sack of grain, he pays for several 

 other services although grain is the primary object of the transaction. 

 The dealer who keeps the store open from 7 A. M. until 5 P. M. is 

 making it possible for his customers to buy grain at any time they 

 are likely to want it. When the customers are given the opportunity 

 to purchase large or small amounts at the car or the store or have it 

 delivered, they are receiving form and place utilities. When credit 

 is extended, they are receiving still another service. Often the trade 

 confuses these services and compares a credit price at the store with 

 a cash price at the car door. 



The previous discussion has shown that these distributing services 

 cost money and that there is a great difference in the efficiency with 

 which they are carried out. Those stores which have favorable ratios 

 of fixed, labor, delivery and other charges are in the best position to 

 sell grain at the lowest price, although some take advantage of the 

 lack of competition to charge a higher price and to make a larger 

 profit even though their costs are low. Some store managers are 

 much shrewder buyers than others and are able to make savings 

 which help to reduce the general overhead. Because of these differ- 

 ences, the prices charged for grain and feeds of the same standard and 

 brand varied considerably throughout the state. 



Weekly retail cash store prices were obtained in 1928 from 62 stores 

 iu New Hampshire, for approximately a whole year, for corn, wheat, 

 middlings, bran, scratch feed, dry mash, dairy feed, cottonseed and 

 gluten feed. Because the number of stores were not equally distri- 

 buted by counties it does not seem desirable to make comparisons on 

 that basis. However, when the prices were averaged by counties some 

 were consistently low and others high. Prices for one week in July 

 and one in November were selected for comparison. 



The smallest range in average prices between counties occurred with 

 middlings, for which there was only 6 cents per cwt. difference be- 

 tween the lowest and highest prices; similarly for corn there was a 

 range of only 10 cents per cwt. The greatest difference in price be- 

 tween coimties occurred with wheat and cottonseed, for which there 

 were ranges of 48 cents and 57 cents per cwt., respectively. 



In order to determine which feeds showed the greatest variations in 

 price throughout the year, all the low and all the high weekly retail 

 prices were averaged for each. The greatest range is $.79 and $.74 

 per cwt. respectively for poultry wheat and cottonseed meal, and the 

 smallest range is $.11 per cwt. for two poultrv feeds of the same 

 brand. (Table 18). 



When all the retail prices for a year are averaged for each standard 

 grain or brand of mixed feed, and compared with the average whole- 

 sale distributor price, the greatest difference is $.31 per cwt. for two 

 poultry feeds of the same brand and the smallest is $.11 per cwii. 

 for corn. 



