ilium ill inn iiii mil 
RETAIL MARKETING OF MEATS 67 
the difference in some instances being so great that the smaller stores 
are virtually carried by the larger. (See Table 29.) The sale of 
meats at prices that result in high net profits in the large stores and 
low net profits in the small stores is probably due in most instances 
to a policy of maintaining uniform prices in all stores of the system, 
but in some instances to a policy of selling at favorable prices in the 
newer and smaller stores for the purpose of building up trade in new 
territory. 
COMPARATIVE OPERATING EXPENSES AND PROFITS IN SELLING MEATS AND 
GROCERIES 
In this survey no attempt was made to obtain detailed data regard- 
ing operating expenses in stores not handling fresh meats, but from 
information obtained incidentally and from data from other sources 
it is possible to make interesting comparisons. Detailed information 
regarding operating expenses was obtained in 55 combination stores 
with total sales of both groceries and meats in 1919 of $11,360,831.86, 
meats being estimated to constitute 47 per cent and groceries 53 per 
cent of the total sales. Expense accounts for meats and groceries 
were not kept separate, and the figures obtained show the combined 
operations for both classes of merchandise. (See Table 36.) 
In chain-store s} T stems selling both meats and groceries from which 
operating expense data were obtained, data regarding total margin 
and total operating expenses for groceries, as well as for meats, were 
obtained from systems operating 81 stores selling meats with net 
sales for 1919 of $4,050,628.62 and 221 stores selling groceries with 
net sales for 1919 of $8,759,965.31. (See Table 37.) In other chain 
systems and in several large individual concerns, where separate 
accounts of operating expenses were not kept, records of cost of 
merchandise and of sales were kept separate for meats and groceries. 
Including both these concerns and the others with more complete 
records, data regarding cost of merchandise sold, sales, and percent- 
age of gross margin were obtained from chain systems comprising 
166 stores selling meats with sales of $5,669,528.69 and 329 stores 
selling groceries with sales of $20,612,184.29, in 1919, and from 8 
individual concerns with sales of meat to the amount of $3,239,160.28 
and groceries to the amount of $4,828,557.62 in the same year. 
Similar data for an approximately equal volume of sales were ob- 
tained for 1920 and for a somewhat smaller volume for 1921. (See 
Table 38.) 
In a separate study of the retail grocery trade covering 1919, de- 
tailed information regarding operating expenses and profits (see 
Table 36) was obtained from 175 stores, with sales approximating 
$9,000,000. (See Bulletin Xo. 18, Bureau of Business Research, 
Harvard University.) The study of the grocery trade was not con- 
tinued for the two subsequent years. 
COMPABISOX OF OPEKATIXG EXPENSES IX SALE OF MEATS AXD OF GEOCERIES 
According to the study of the grocery trade, interest was 1 per 
cent of sales as compared with 0.52 per cent in individual meat 
markets, and depreciation of store equipment was 0.27 as compared 
with 0.45 per cent. (See also Table 28.) The higher interest 
