RETAIL MARKETING OF MEATS 
53 
ANALYSIS OF OPERATING EXPENSES 
SALARIES AND WAGES 
The weighted average of salaries and wages of individual stores 
in 1919, including both carry and delivery concerns, was 10.4 per 
cent of sales, 'varying from somewhat less than 9 per cent in the 
largest stores to approximately 11 per cent in the smallest. For the 
most part, in the data collected, there is a steady gradation between 
the groups of stores with largest and those of stores with smallest 
volume of sales. In so far as there is any variation from this steady 
gradation, it is perhaps due to lack of perfect representation, owing 
to the limited number of concerns from which data were obtainable 
in the particular groups. (See Table 28.) 
Wages and Other Expenses in Individual Markets and Chain-Store Branches 

INDIVIDUAL MARKETS 
ANNUAL SALES 
$25, 001 . to $SO, OOO - - - 
$50,001 to $100,000 
PERCENTAGE OF NET SALES 
5 10 15 
20 
15.67 
14.16 
$100,001 and Over 13.49 
Semiwholesale trade concerns 
C30 to 80% hotel & restaurant trade) 
10.41 
WAGES 
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ALL OTHER EXPENSES 
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CHAIN STORES 
ANNUAL SALES 
$25,001 to$50,000 17.30 
$50,001 to $100,000 15.87 
$100,001 and Oi/er 13.80 
Fig. 4. — Chain-store data include only carry systems'. Individual markets include both 
carry and delivery concerns, but with a deduction of delivery expense both in wages 
and in other expenses. The gradation both in wages and in other expenses between 
smaller and larger markets is apparent both among individual concerns and in chain- 
store systems. From this figure it also appears that operating expenses are lower in 
individual markets than in chain-store branches of equivalent volume of sales. This 
comparison should not be made, since the deduction of delivery expense in individual 
markets is a modifying factor because of the fact that the separation of sales expense 
and delivery expense can not be accurate, and there is variation in delivery and other 
services rendered, which can not be accurately measured either in effect or in expense 
involved. 
As explained above, it was necessary in the individual stores to 
estimate an amount to be allowed as salary to the owner-manager. 
Otherwise no comparison could be made in operating expenses be- 
tween stores and groups of stores, because of the varying ratio of 
the labor of the owner-manager to the paid labor utilized in con- 
ducting the business. In the largest stores the item of salaries and 
wages consists entirely or almost entirely of actual payments to 
employed labor, but in the smallest stores it is entirely or almost 
entirely a percentage estimate allowed to the owner-manager. 
In chain-store systems the work in the branch stores is performed 
entirely by paid labor, and usually the work of general manage- 
ment is performed entirely or almost entirely by salaried officials. 
