MAE GINS, EXPENSES, AND PROFITS IN RETAILING MEAT 17 
tendency toward decrease in gross margin percentage as net sales 
volumes increased. The principal reason for this was probably that 
the number of stores within some of the size groupings was too small 
to be representative. In the unlimited-delivery class the tendency 
toward a decrease in gross margin percentage with an increase in 
sales volumes was marked in each of the profit-and-loss groups and 
again in the combined group of both profit-and-loss stores. 
TOTAL EXPENSE 
The average total expense for all individual retail meat stores for 
1923 was 20.55 per cent of net sales. The lowest percentage of 
expense, 19.74, was found in carry stores. The limited-delivery group 
expense was higher, this percentage being 20.80, whereas the unlim- 
ited-delivery group percentage was 20.95, which was the highest per- 
centage of the three groups. The differences in percentages were in 
fair agreement with the expected cost variations occasioned by 
differences in services rendered. 
The efficiency of the profit-store group was reflected in a tendency 
toward lower total expense percentages. It was significant that in 
the case of loss stores not only was the tendency toward lower gross 
margin percentages more apparent than in the case of profit stores, 
but total expense percentages were higher. The combination of these 
two facts would seem to point toward a general inefficiency of man- 
agement as the cause of uprofitable operation rather than toward 
factors outside the stores over which the proprietors had no control. 
It seems reasonable to believe that if the same degree of efficiency 
had been exercised in the management of the loss stores, they would 
have been operated at about the same percentage of total expense 
as profit stores of the same class of service. The same general 
conditions of expense applied to both the profit and loss stores 
in a locality. The degree of efficiency with which profit stores were 
operated was reflected in their lower expense percentages. Since 
the loss stores were not operated at as low expense percentages as 
profit stores, the conclusion seemed to be that the conduct of such 
stores was marked by a greater lack of efficiency on the part of the 
managements. Several factors contributing to this conclusion are 
discussed later in connection with the study of profit and loss stores 
and their efficiencies as reflected in margin and expense variations. 
The tendency toward a percentage decrease in total expense with 
increase in the volume of net sales was shown to some extent by 
the data. Whatever exceptions were noted, such as that in the 
profit group in the carry class and the similar group in the limited- 
delivery class, may be attributed to the smallness of the number of 
stores falling within these groups rather than to any other important 
factor. 
SALARIES AND WAGES 
Salaries and wage expense as a percentage of net sales averaged 
13.16 per cent for the 129 individual retail meat stores for the year 
1923. The average salary and wage percentage in the carry group 
was 12.66. In the limited-delivery group it was slightly higher, 
being 13.29, and in the unlimited-delivery group the expense was 
13.41 per cent of net sales. 
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