RETAIL MARKETING OF MEATS 
69 
COMPARATIVE MARGINS AND PROFITS ON MEATS AND GROCERIES WHEN SOLD TOGETHER 
In the concerns selling both meats and groceries, but keeping 
records of the operations separate, an interesting comparison can be 
made of gross margin and net profits in the two classes of merchan- 
dise when sold together. In the chain-store systems for which oper- 
ating-expense information was obtained, operating expenses in rela- 
| tion to sales for meats, in 1919, was 2.08 per cent higher than for 
groceries (see Table 37), corresponding rather closely to the differ- 
ence between individual concerns in the two trades. The gross 
margin, however, was 20.38 per cent in the meat operations as com- 
Table 37. — Comparative gross margin, operating expenses, and net profit in 
sale of meats and groceries together in chain systems 
Meats 
Groceries 
Year 
Num- 
ber of 
stores 
Net sales 
Gross 
mar- 
gin 
Total 
ex- 
pense 
Net 
profit 
Num- 
ber of 
stores 
Net sales 
Gross 
mar- 
gin 
Total 
ex- 
pense 
Net 
profit 
1919 
81 
82 
56 
$4, 050, 628. 62 
3, 752, 679. 03 
2, 800, 633. 88 
Perct. 
20.38 
21.15 
24.66 
Perct. 
15.50 
16.72 
20.22 
Perct. 
4.88 
4.43 
4.44 
221 
214 
99 
$8, 759, 965. 31 
11, 177, 136. 66 
4, 374, 100. 55 
Per ct. 
13.09 
11.98 
17.63 
Perct. 
13.42 
12.34 
17.67 
Per ct. 
-0.33 
1920 
1921. 
-.36 
-.04 
Table 38. — Comparative gross margin in sale of meats and groceries together 
CHAIN SYSTEMS 
Meats 
Groceries 
Year 
Number 
of 
stores 
Net sales 
Gross 
margin 
Number 
of 
stores 
Net sales 
Gross 
margin 
1919 
166 
151 
146 
$5, 669, 528. 69 
5, 535, 721. 13 
4, 869, 862. 25 
Per cent 
20.06 
20.95 
25.69 
329 
244 
182 
$20, 612, 184. 29 
22, 442, 795. 11 
16, 293, 638. 54 
Per cent 
14. 11 
1920 
13.61 
1921 
16.50 
INDIVIDUAL CONCERNS 
1919. 
1920. 
1921. 
$3, 239, 160. 28 
17.81 
8 
2, 473, 475. 99 
17.82 
4 
1, 889, 151. 66 
22.13 
5 
$4, 828, 557. 62 
2, 163, 887. 51 
1, 864, 799. 54 
14.67 
14.26 
17.41 
pared with 13.09 per cent in the grocery operations, a difference of 
7.29 per cent. In consequence, while operations in meats showed 
a net profit of 4.88 per cent, those in groceries showed a net loss 
of 0.33 per cent. In 1920 and 1921 the net profits in the operations 
on meats were 4.43 per cent and 4.44 per cent, respectively, and the 
net losses on groceries 0.36 per cent and 0.04 per cent respectively. 
In the much larger number of stores, with correspondingly larger 
volume of operations, from which data are available concerning cost 
of merchandise and sales, the same characteristics prevails — a much 
wider spread of gross margin in meats than in groceries. (See 
Table 38.) The average difference is not so great in the group of 
large individual concerns from which this information is available. 
