IN FOOD DISTRIBUTION 5 



arrangements the retailer is unable to effect this simplifica- 

 tion. With heavy overhead charges and a relatively small 

 business he is compelled to make what seems to be an 

 exorbitant profit on every transaction in order to maintain 

 himself. To be sure, he renders services in the form of 

 convenience and individual accommodation which enable 

 him to add one-third to one-half to the prices which he 

 pays the wholesaler;^ but if these services and that con- 

 venience were not demanded by the consuming public he 

 would be unable to make this large addition to wholesale 

 prices. Still, if these services could be integrated and or- 

 ganized in a systematic manner it is easily conceivable that 

 they might be furnished at much smaller costs. With the 

 accomplishment of this economy would come also a vast 

 increase in social welfare without a corresponding social 

 loss. Few men would be thrown out of employment; little 

 capital value would be destroyed, and a limited measure of 

 readjustment would suffice. 



One large difficulty which the small independent retailer 

 seems unable to overcome is that of handling advantageously 

 perishable products of second and third qualities, those 

 qualities which the vast bulk of our population might rea- 

 sonably be expected to buy. On first grade qualities the 

 retailer can add a handsome percentage, enough to cover 

 his heavy expenses and large risks of loss through de- 

 terioration, and still consumption will not be curtailed ap- 

 preciably. To the classes that buy "fancy" grades a price 

 of a little more or a little less is a matter of relative in- 

 difference. But it is quite otherwise in the case of "stand- 

 ard" grades. The large consuming public which is unable 

 to buy the best grades of commodities refuses to take the 



sKing: "Can the Cost of Distributing Food Products be Reduced?" 

 in Aimals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 

 Vol. XLVIII, pp. 199-224. 



