60 BULLETIN 1317, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DELIVERY EXPENSE 
The delivery expense in the delivery stores, weighted average for 
all stores, was found to be 2.57 per cent of the amount of sales. In 
77 individual markets for which there was available an estimate of 
the percentage of goods delivered as well as detailed operating 
expenses, the expense of delivering was foimd to be 6.72 per cent of 
the selling price of the goods actually delivered. Since in the stores 
giving delivery service an average of only about 40 per cent of goods 
sold are delivered, the remainder being carried home by the pur- 
chasers, the delivery expense distributed over the total sales becomes 
2.57 per cent, as just stated. 
Assuming that 6.72 per cent was the expense of delivering goods 
actually delivered, it is probable that the expense would be some- 
what lower, say 5 per cent, if a dealer were delivering all the mer- 
chandise sold. One large concern with annual sales of more than 
$600,000, which estimated its deliveries as 90 per cent of merchan- 
dise sold and kept its record of delivery expense strictly separate 
from other expenses, had a delivery expense of 4.57 per cent of sales, 
corresponding approximately to 5 per cent as the delivery expense 
of merchandise actually delivered. 
The data obtained show the percentage relationship of delivery 
expense to sales somewhat higher in the smaller than in the larger 
stores, which is believed to correspond to the facts, since with smaller 
volume of sales and smaller number of deliveries it is not possible 
to utilize the time of employees so advantageously. In the smaller 
stores delivery expense is more largely wages, the bicycle playing no 
small part in the delivery, while in the larger stores it is more largely 
other expense, the automobile being much used. Conclusions of too 
great definiteness should not be drawn regarding variations in this 
item, since the division of time and expense between selling and 
delivery can not be perfectly exact. 
ANALYSIS OF OPERATING EXPENSES BY GROUPS OF ITEMS 
In the individual stores with annual sales of more than $100,000 
and in all the chain systems it was possible to obtain fairly satis- 
factory data for dividing total expense into the several groups of 
selling expense, delivery expense, buying and management expense, 
and general expense. (See Table 32.) 
Total selling expense in the chain systems was considerably larger 
than in those groups of individual markets with especially large 
sales. In the chain systems the groups vary from 8.07 to 9.27 per 
cent of sales, and in the large individual markets from 7.14 to 7.59 
per cent of sales. This difference is principally due to difference in 
wages of sales force. In these concerns the wage expense consists 
entirely or almost entirely of actual wages paid. Accordingly, in 
this comparison there is a further indication of the higher percentage 
relation of wages to sales in stores with small sales than in stores 
with large sales. 
There is much variation between the different groups in buying 
and management expense, which is perhaps due in part to methods 
of keeping accounting records in particular instances. In general, 
this portion of the total expense in large individual concerns and in 
chain systems is approximately 2 per cent of net sales. It is this 
