46 BULLETIN 1442, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE 
vital importance to the proprietors of retail meat establishments. 
Shrinkage and deterioration in salability arising from inadequate 
refrigeration facilities or from holding fresh meat too long, are much 
more important to the retail meat dealer than the actual rate of 
turnover of the capital, which he has invested in his inventory of 
perishable fresh meat and meat products. 
EQUIPMENT INVESTMENT 
The percentage relation of the total investment in equipment to 
net sales in carry stores was 5.76 per cent, in limited-delivery 
stores, 4.85 per cent, and in the unlimited-delivery group, 6.67. 
These percentages reflected the variations in equipment investment 
to be found among these three classes of stores. 
In analyzing the differences in shop-equipment investment the 
carry class and unlimited-delivery class were used. Stalls in public 
markets were excluded, since in some instances the investment in 
these stalls was much less than that required where the meat market 
was operated as a straight meat market outside of public markets. 
The average shop equipment investment in carry group of stores 
was found to be 6.97 per cent of net sales, and in the unlimited- 
delivery stores the average equipment investment was 6.49 per cent 
of net sales. The equipment investment in carry stores was usually 
more extensive than in delivery stores, owing to the fact that the 
carry stores depended to a greater extent on general attractiveness 
in appearance to draw trade. 
SEMIWHOLESALE STRAIGHT MEAT MARKETS 
Meat stores whose wholesale activities exceeded 30 per cent of 
their total volumes of business were classed as semiwholesale mar- 
kets. Data were collected from a few stores of this type, but the 
records kept by such stores were inadequate for a study of their 
costs of retailing meat. No separate records of retail or wholesale 
sales were kept in most stores. If separate records of retail and 
wholesale sales were available, the determination of the cost of 
goods sold at wholesale and at retail was an impossibility. It was, 
therefore, not possible to determine a gross margin percentage 
for the retail portion of the business. Lacking this essential figure, 
a profit-and-loss statement could not be prepared for the retail 
portion of the business. 
The semiwholesale markets invariably showed much lower gross 
margins and expenses than retail markets. The volume of business 
per employee was larger because of larger purchases made by 
customers in semiwholesale markets. The comparative gross mar- 
gins, expenses, and profit percentages for a group of nine straight 
semiwholesale meat markets, whose sales in 1923 totaled $947,475, 
or an average of $105,275 per market, are arranged for presentation 
in Table 17. 
