8 



BULLETIN 302, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



deliveries, and have no telephones in their stores. Their plan is to 

 sell a peck of apples proportionately as cheap as they could sell a 

 barrel. The concern publishes a weekly newspaper which in one week 

 had a circulation of 26,000 copies. In this paper they advertised the 

 commodities on which they would make special prices. On Novem- 

 ber 4, 1914, they quoted "Excellent cooking apples," which cost them 

 about 10 cents, at 15 cents per peck. This company moved a large 

 quantity of fruit through their various stores at low prices, made a 

 profit of about 50 to 60 cents a barrel, and enabled the consumer to 

 buy far below the usual retail prices. 



The investigator also secured the record of sale of 118 barrels of 

 apples through 5 and 10 cent stores. The complete distribution of 

 this lot from grower to consumer is given in Table 2. 



It will be noted that the 5 and 10 cent stores handled this fruit for 

 21.8 per cent of the consumer's dollar. A large Pacific coast growers' 

 organization, in its efforts to secure a record of the distribution of the 

 orange consumer's dollar, secured reports covering the market prices 

 of oranges for a whole year. When these reports were tabulated it 

 was found that 33 J per cent of the orange consumer's dollar remained 

 with the retailer. So it would appear that through distribution con- 

 ducted as in the case given above a saving of 11.53 per cent can be 

 effected, it being granted that apples and oranges are retailed in a 

 similar way. 



Table 2. — Distribution of the consumer's dollar in a sale of 118 barrels of apples distributed 

 through medium of 5 and 10 cent stores. 



Retail costs 

 per barrel. 



Per cent of 



consumer's 



dollar. 



Grower received (on the tree) 



Cost of barrel, picking, grading, packing, and hauling 



Fruit growers ' association selling charges 



Freight, origin to destination 



Cartage at destination (depot to store) 



Loss (shrinkage) to wholesaler 



Cost to wholesaler 



Wholesaler's profit .' ". 



Cost to 5 and 10 cent stores 



Profit to 5 and 10 cent stores 



Price paid by consumer 



SI. 455 

 .66 

 .135 

 .416 

 .05 

 .032 



2.748 



2.956 



.824 



38.49 

 17.46 



3.57 

 11.00 



1.31 



For distribution and costs this lot of fruit was marketed very satis- 

 factorily, but of course the case is not typical of retail handling. It 

 is interesting to note that the distribution was from a growers' asso- 

 ciation through wholesaler and retailer to consumer. In the large 

 cities the jobber usually intervenes between the wholesaler and 

 retailer, while wasteful methods and costly service come between the 

 retailer and consumer, with the result that prices are charged which 

 may be prohibitive of heavy consumption. 



