32 
BULLETIN 1442, IT. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
results may be comparable, stores owned by partnerships and cor- 
porations have been regarded as operated by one proprietor and 
the remaining owners have been allowed estimated wages equal in 
amount to the usual scale of wages paid in the locality for the 
services rendered by these partners, exclusive of any duties as 
proprietors. The functions of management were thus considered 
as being centered in one individual. 
By this method, data from stores owned and operated under the 
various forms of ownership have been made comparable. Estimated 
wages of the proprietor were considered as applicable to one indi- 
vidual and returns to the remaining owners were not included, since 
they were regarded solely as employees of the business. The various 
Gross Margin and total Expense Percentages 
in iE9 Individual Retail meat Markets 
Arranged by Profit and Loss Groupings 
PER CENT OF SALES 
10 15 20 
GROUP OF 33 MARKETS 
AVERAGING 8.07% PROFIT^ 
GROUP OF 32 MARKETS 
AVERAGING 4-.l4-% PROFIT 
GROUP OF 32 MARKETS 
AVERAGING 1.51 % PROFIT ; 
GROUP OF 32 MARKETS 
AVERAGING 1.84-% LOSS 
I Gross Margin 
Total Expense 
Fig. 2. — The 129 markets were arrayed in order of profit percentages and the array was 
then-- divided into four groups. The group of 33 markets with the highest profit per- 
centages had the highest gross margin and the lowest total expense percentages. The 
group of 32 markets with an indicated less of — 1.S4 per cent of sales had the lowest 
gross margin and the highest total expense percentages of the four groups. When the 
129 markets were grouped by type of service and similar arrays were made on profit 
percentages, the results were in 'agreement with the general tendencies exhibited by the 
group of all stores combined. Total expense includes proprietor wages but no interest 
on investment 
forms of divided proprietorship were thus reduced to comparable 
single ownerships. 
The total number of individual retail stores from which data 
were obtained for the }-ear 1923 was used. To the 129 individual 
retail meat markets on which the principal analysis was based, were 
added the 13 markets whose annual sales volumes were below 
$14,000. Total returns were those presented for the 142 stores in 
Table 11. The stores were arranged according to $10,000 groups 
of annual sales volumes. The annual returns to proprietors were 
placed in groups of $1,000 each. Some relation was shown between 
increased volume of sales and greatly increased returns. Such a 
relation was obviously to be expected. Of the total 142 stores, 
returns to the proprietors in 76 were less than $3,500 per year. Of 
