58 BULLETIN 1317, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
REFRIGERATION 
The weighted average for refrigeration in individual stores is 
0.78 per cent of sales. In the smallest stores this item is approxi- 
mately three times as large as in the largest, since the meats can of 
course be carried with less expense of refrigeration in large quanti- 
ties than in small. 
HEAT, LIGHT, AND POWER 
The item of heat, light, and power varies but little among the 
different classes, types, and sizes of stores. Where there is a con- 
siderable variation, it is likely to be due to imperfection of records 
in some of the stores in a group, particularly a failure to distinguish 
between the charge for power and that for refrigeration. With 
the use of ice machines, refrigeration is ordinarly effected by the 
utilization of electric power, the charge for which is not segregated 
from the charge for light and for power used for other purposes. 
RENT 
The weighted average for rent in individual stores was 1.33 per 
cent of sales. For the carry group it was 1.46 per cent and for the 
delivery group 1.26 per cent, this difference apparently reflecting 
the difference in policy that is necessarily followed by carry and 
delivery stores. The trade of the former is obtained largely by con- 
venience of location, where many persons pass in the daily routine 
of their duties; the trade of the latter is obtained and held largely 
by the service rendered, which can be conducted satisfactorily from 
a location less prominent. Among the chain systems from which 
data were obtained the item of rent is higher for the small delivery 
group than for the carry groups, which may be owing to the fact 
that the three delivery chain systems are all located in New York 
City, where rents are higher than in smaller places. 
The percentage relation of rent to volume of net sales is sub- 
stantially the same in the larger and in the smaller stores (see Tables 
28 and 31), although the rental per unit of floor space in the largest 
stores is several times as great as in the stores of smallest size. The 
amount of business done in the desirable locations of the larger 
stores is so much greater per unit of floor space than the rental con- 
stitutes a proportionate charge upon the total business transacted sub- 
stantially the same as in the smaller stores. (See Table 31.) This 
is an excellent concrete illustration of the manner in which rental 
of business locations is determined competitively by their desir- 
ability because of volume of business. In other words, the rental 
of a business site is determined by its productiveness in monetary 
returns to its occupant, as compared with less desirable sites, in 
somewhat the same manner as the rental of agricultural land is 
determined by its productiveness 1 as compared with other land that 
gives only a sufficient return to meet the cost of operating it. 
In concerns of a semiwholesale character with a large element of 
restaurant trade, average sales per square foot are larger than in 
stores with family trade because of the larger scale of operations. 
However, desirable locations are not so necessary, and the average 
rental per square foot and the percentage relationship of rent to 
