6 BULLETIN 1411, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
prices were converted to the original package or hundredweight basis, 
to correspond with units quoted in the wholesale and jobbing markets. 
Keporters gave description of sizes and qualities in each case, so that 
prices for the various marketing stages would represent corresponding 
grades of goods. All possible care was taken to procure typical sell- 
ing prices that were truly representative of the situations studied. 
By restricting the reports to standard varieties and grades, the error 
from comparing unliKe conditions was reduced to a minimum. 
ADJUSTMENT FOR SHRINKAGE IN RETAILING 
To make the retail prices exactly comparable with wholesale 
prices, a correction was made for shrinkage of contents of packages 
in retail selling. This was done by multiplying the mean retail 
package price by the percentage of the shipping package which is 
prevailingly sold at retail. This shrinkage factor does not allow for 
the indefinite and irregular losses that occasionally arise because of 
deterioration or decay, but only for actual physical shrinkage in 
contents of original packages. The adjustments were made as 
noted in Table 2. 
Table 2. 
-Adjustment for shrinkage in retail selling, New York metropolitan area, 
February, 1928, to May, 1924 
Commodity 
Shipping unit 
Gross 
Quantity 
weight 
usually 
per unit i 
retailed 
Pounds 
Pounds 
100 
95 
100 
92 
75 
75 
35 
33 
100 
90 
60 
60 
40 
40 
100 
90 
150 
135 
34 
34 
48 
48 
100 
95 
100 
90 
100 
95 
Percent- 
age of 
shipping 
unit 
retailed 
Northern potatoes. 
Southern potatoes- 
California oranges. 
Peaches 
Sweet potatoes 
Cantaloupes 
Boxed apples 
Southern cabbage . 
Barreled apples 
Eastern lettuce 
Western lettuce ... 
Yellow onions 
Northern cabbage. 
White onions 
100 pounds. 
do 
Box 
Crate 
100 pounds. 
Crate 
Box 
100 pounds. 
Barrel 
Hamper 
Crate 
100 pounds. 
do 
do 
Per cent 
95 
92 
100 
94 
90 
100 
100 
90 
90 
100 
100 
95 
90 
95 
1 As used in converting original quotations. 
Against each retail quotation was matched the wholesale figure 
for the corresponding date. Jobbing prices also were added for inde- 
pendent unit stores. No jobbing prices were entered for chain stores, 
since these buy their goods mainly in the wholesale market, whereas 
unit stores deal through jobbers. Especial care was taken to have 
each of the stages in the price series represent identical goods and 
conditions. In the absence of bias in obtaining the price data, errors 
in particular quotations should compensate one another so that the 
records for the succession of weeks which are included in the analysis 
period should be an accurate representation of prevailing price con- 
ditions. The care taken in selecting data, the variety of conditions 
included, the length of time covered, the volume of data obtained, 
and the carefulness in the method of analysis, unite therefore to make 
this analysis an accurate and representative presentation of actual 
conditions. 
