18 BULLETIN 1442, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Reference to Table 4 will show that in most cases the ratio of 
salary! and wage expense to net sales decreased as volume of net 
sales increased. The group of limited-delivery stores was small in 
number and such variations as were noted from a decrease in salary 
and wage expense as the volume of sales increased were attributed 
to the limited number of stores within each of the size groupings. 
In the carry store and unlimited-delivery store classes a very 
definite tendency toward decreasing salary and wage percentage was 
shown in both the profit and loss groups and in the combined groups 
for each of these classes of stores. In the combined profit-and-loss 
group of carry stores, there was a decrease of 2.57 in the wage 
expense percentage between the stores in the lowest group and those 
in the group of sales over $100,000. In the group of unlimited- 
delivery stores, there was a difference of 4.95 in the wage expense 
percentage between stores of the lowest volumes of sales and the 
highest. A portion of the difference between the 2.57 per cent thus 
observed for the carry group and the 4.95 per cent in the unlimited- 
delivery group was attributable to the fact that four of the five 
carry stores, whose net sales volumes were over $100,000, were 
located in the Pacific coast section where wages were generally 
higher than in the other sections of the country. 
Stores of the loss group showed a tendency toward higher salaries 
and wages percentages in all three classes of stores than those of 
the profit group. The conclusion to be drawn in this instance 
would seem to be similar to that observed in the gross margin and 
total-expense percentages. It would again appear that the loss 
stores' management inefficiency was reflected in a higher wage ex- 
pense than was found in profit stores. A portion of this observed 
increase, in so far as the present data were applicable, was explain- 
able by the tendency to employ more employees in loss stores than 
in profit stores of similar volumes. This fact added weight to the 
conclusion that inefficiency of management was an important con- 
tributing factor to loss conditions in retail meat stores. 
RENT 
The average rent percentage for 129 individual straight markets, 
operated as retail stores, was 2.18 in 1923. Rent as a percentage of 
net sales for the carry. class was 2.51, for the limited-delivery class 
2.49, and for the unlimited-delivery class, 1.81. The differences 
noted among these average percentages for rent were in agreement 
with the expected variations. The carry stores were altogether 
dependent, and the limited-delivery stores were dependent to a very 
great extent, upon customers who came to the stores. Therefore, 
locations were selected convenient to the expected clientele. These 
locations were of necessity in either the business districts or in other 
important areas, where numbers of people would find the stores 
readily accessible. Such locations commanded higher rents, and 
the data clearly indicated this fact. 
On the other hand, the unlimited-delivery markets, which were 
service stores, did not depend as much as the carry stores upon 
transient trade and on accessibility of location. They were, there- 
