MAE GINS, EXPENSES, AND PROFITS IN RETAILING MEAT 31 
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The significance of this grouping rests in the fact disclosed by 
the analysis presented in Table 9. There it is shown that rate of 
profit and volume of sales were but little related. Therefore, when 
the stores were arranged according to profit and significant dif- 
ferences were noted between profit and loss stores, the observed 
results were not brought about through variations occasioned by 
changes in sales volumes. 
With slight exceptions, it was found in all groups that as the 
rate of profit decreased, gross margin percentage also decreased. 
In those groups in which slight variations were found — that is, in 
the lowest fourth of the carry class and in the second fourth of 
the limited- delivery class — the tendency toward a decreased margin 
percentage with a low rate of profit was sufficiently well defined 
to outweigh the variations noted. Similarly, total expense per- 
centage definitely increased in all groups as rate of profit decreased, 
with the exceptions of the second and lowest groups in the limited- 
delivery class. In these two groups, the tendency toward increased 
total expense percentages was evident when the first two groups and 
the second two groups within the class were considered together. 
In salaries and wage expense, a tendency toward increased per- 
centages with decreasing rates of profit was plainly evident. Rent 
also showed to a marked degree this tendency toward increased 
percentages with decreased profit rates. 
When all carry and delivery stores were placed together in one 
group, the tendency of gross margin percentages to decrease and 
expense percentages to increase as rates of profit decreased was 
well marked. The obvious conclusion to be drawn from these ob- 
served facts was that as the efficiency of management decreased a 
tendency toward loss developed. In this case, the only measures 
of efficiency were the variations observed in stores operating at 
varying rates of profit and percentages in stores incurring losses. 
Increased expense and decreased gross margin percentages formed 
the measures of decreasing efficiency of management. 
There was, in so far as the data permitted of interpretation, no 
one item of expense particularly susceptible to management ineffi- 
ciency. The situation seemed to be generally spread throughout 
the business, rather than concentrated at any one point. The failure 
to realize a gross margin percentage equal to that of the profit 
stores was probably due to the same internal management ineffi- 
ciency which manifested itself through higher expense percentage 
in the stores showing tendencies toward loss conditions. 
The results of this analysis of the tendency toward loss sub- 
stantiates definitely the previously observed tendency toward 
lower gross margin and higher expense percentages in loss stores, 
which was discussed briefly in the sections covering gross margin, 
total expense, salaries and wages, and other percentages. (Fig. 2.) 
TOTAL RETURNS TO PROPRIETORS OF INDIVIDUAL RETAIL 
MEAT MARKETS 
Total returns to the proprietors of individual retail meat stores 
in 1923 were studied. Total return, as here used, includes the 
estimated wage of the proprietor, profit, and interest. That the 
