16 
REASONS FOR VARIABILITY OF JOBBERS' PORTION 
Variability in jobbers ' spreads might be explained by demonstrating 
its association with variations in size of the jobber's sale, in a manner 
similar to the explanation of variablity in percentage margins. To 
test the existence of such association, the prevailing size of the 
jobber's sale was ascertained for each commodity of the series and 
this was compared with the size of the retail sale. The figures for 
size of jobber's sale were obtained from the books of representative 
jobbers in Brooklyn and Newark, covering transactions extending 
over several weeks. 
SIZE OF RETAILER'S SALE AND 
SIZE OF JOBBER'S SALE 
FOURTEEN LEADING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 
NEW YORK METROPOLITAN DISTRICT, 1923-1924- 
MEAN SIZE OF JOBBER'S SALE MEAN SIZE OF RETAILER'S SALE 
250 
POUNDS 
200 150 100 
W LETTUCE 
E. LETTUCE 
PEACHES 
BOXED APPLES 
WHITE ONIONS 
CALIF ORANGES 
SWEET POTATOES 
S. CABBAGE 
BBLD. APPLES 
CANTALOUPES 
YELLOW ONIONS 
S. POTATOES 
N. CABBAGE 
N. POTATOES 
Fig. 7. — General symmetry in these two series of bars shows that the quantity of a commodity pur- 
chased by the retailer is proportional to the quantity prevailingly sold to the individual customer 
The relationship of size of jobber's sale to size of the standard 
retail sale was found to be substantially regular throughout the 
series, as shown in Table 6. There was a range in the number of 
retail sales per jobber's sale among the 14 articles from a minimum 
of 24 to a maximum of 45 sales, but the grouping around the weighted 
mean number, 32.5, was fairly close. With 8 of the commodities, 
moreover, the ratio was between 30 and 35; with 3 of the remaining 
6 it was below 30; and with the remaining 3 it was above 35. A 
general tendency is thus apparent for size of the jobber's sale to 
