PRICES AND QUALITY OF CREAMEEY BUTTEE. 17 



chases are made by a single buyer who is an expert judge of butter. 

 By centralizing their purchasing they also obtain the advantage of 

 reduced prices on account of larger purchases. (See Table 5, p. 18.) 



GROCERY STORES. 



For the purpose of these comparative studies all stores which main- 

 tain regularly a telephone order department and a daily delivery 

 service and which were not units of a chain store system were classi- 

 fied as " grocery stores." Another important characteristic of this 

 class of stores is the fact that they usually carry many of their cus- 

 tomers on monthly or biweekly credit accounts. In most cities the 

 bulk of all retail sales of butter is made by stores of this type. It 

 is noteworthy that the average selling price of independent grocery 

 stores was higher than that of retail chain store systems. (See 

 Table 5, p. 18.) 



CHAIN STORES. 



The greater portion of the butter supplj^ of Philadelphia is sold 

 through chain stores. These stores do not generally maintain a tele- 

 phone service, and practically all sales are for cash. The distinctive 

 characteristic of the chain-store system is the fact that the purchas- 

 ing of all supplies is centralized ; and thus " the system " has the 

 advantage of having its supplies selected by expert judges of quality 

 and reduced prices for large bulk purchases. The investigation 

 showed that in Philadelphia this class of stores obtained Extras at 

 an average of 2 cents below the prevailing prices paid by other 

 classes of retailers. (See Table 5, p. 19.) 



WAGON RETAILERS. 



Retail hucksters or wagon peddlers who specialize in selling dairy 

 products and eggs handle an extremely small percentage of the 

 butter suppty of any city. Special mention of this class of retailers 

 is made because a few creameries have been able to obtain an ex- 

 ceptionally good price for a good grade of butter supplied in ac- 

 cordance with the regular demands of the customers served by them. 

 Because of the comparatively small amount of their purchases, wagon 

 retailers generally can not buy as cheaply as chain-store operators. 

 (See Table 5, p. 19.) 



DAIRY AND FRUIT STORES. 



In New York and Boston a considerable number of small dairy 

 stores are operated by fluid milk distributing concerns which also 

 sell manufactured dairy products, eggs, honey, and other delicacies. 

 In Chicago and other cities fruit stores also sell considerable quanti- 

 ties of butter. These two types of stores are classed together for the 



