SELF-SERVING IN RETAILING FOOD PRODUCTS. 3 
that customers are required to make their own selections of mer- 
chandise, taking the goods off the shelves or tables and carrying them 
to a special place where payment is made for those selected. This 
system applies not only to the distribution of foodstuffs, but is appli- 
cable to almost any line of merchandise. It is being successfully 
applied to the retail distribution of clothing, millinery, shoes, dry 
goods, and other lines, which at first thought would seem to be of 
such a nature as to prohibit their sale under the self-service plan. 
There is a common belief among the retail grocers of the country 
and the general public, especially in the East, that the term self- 
service is used only in connection with a certain corporation operating 
a number of self-service stores. This is no more true than that the 
expression "chain-store method of distribution " means a certain 
company operating a chain of stores. Neither is the idea correct 
that permission must be secured from any corporation to operate a 
self-service store. The corporation referred to does hold certain 
patents covering floor plans and certain interior arrangement of their 
stores, but principles of self-service can not be patented, being nearly 
as old as distribution itself. Particular floor plans and arrangements 
apparently are not vital to the operation of a self-service store. 
In the ordinary type of retail store merchandise can not be pur- 
chased without paying for the cost of certain services. There is no 
such thing as " free service," as commonly advertised by many re- 
tailers. A direct charge for service may not be made, but its cost is 
included necessarily in the selling price of the merchandise. The 
average food store has only one price for each article sold. One per- 
son may buy an article, pay cash, and carry it home. The next pur- 
chaser may ask to have a similar article delivered several miles away 
and to have it charged, not paying for it for 30 to 60 days. Yet to 
each of those customers the price is the same. This is obviously 
unfair to the " cash and carry " customer. Furthermore, such a sys- 
tem stimulates a demand for service and penalizes the consumer who 
does not ask for it nor want it. In the average retail store the cost 
of delivery amounts to about 2.4 per cent of total sales and the cost 
of credit to about 1 per cent 2 (one-half per cent loss from bad debts 
and one-half per cent for keeping the account). If a charge were 
made for the credit and delivery service rendered, based on the actual 
cost of the service, the second customer would pay about 3J per cent 
more for his goods than the first. 
Self-service may be operated on the "credit and delivery" basis, 
but in this bulletin it is assumed to be operated on the " cash and 
carry " basis. In fact, it is operated on the " cash and carry " basis 
in nearly every instance. In a few cases delivery service is furnished 
2 Figures compiled by the bureau of business research of the graduate school of busi- 
ness administration of Harvard University, 
