RETAIL MARKETING OF MEATS 81 
rate of 6 per cent, the interest on investment is slightly lower than 
for the entire group of stores, including those with a small element 
of other goods. (See Table 28.) 
to J 
to 
STOCK TURN 
It is obvious that the rate of stock turn in the sale of such a 
highly perishable commodity as fresh meat is much higher than in 
less perishable merchandise. In the canvass of the trade, dealers 
were asked the time required for stock turn of fresh meats, and 
the usual reply was two or three days. Although with satisfactory 
refrigeration equipment the dealer can easily keep fresh meat for a 
much longer period, the average time between purchase and sale for 
dealers who make their purchases merely as trade requires seems to 
be slightly under three business days. If trade were confined to 
fresh meat, if reserve stocks were not carried, and if sales occurred 
steadily in uniform volume, this would mean a stock turn of ap- 
proximately 100 times a year. 
In the larger stores, the rate of sale is usually much more rapid 
than in the smaller, since the larger stores sell several or many sides 
of beef a day, while the smallest may require two or more days for 
selling a single side. However, larger concerns with good refrig- 
eration equipment in many instances find it advantageous to pur- 
chase several days' supply in advance, and the average time between 
purchase and sale in such instances is longer than in the smaller 
concerns. Concerns which obtain their supplies but once a week, as 
on refrigerator-car routes with weekly service, can of course have a 
stock turn of only 52 times a year, even though their weekly sales 
may occur almost entirely within the first day or two. 
The usual formula for determining the rate of stock turn is to 
divide the cost of merchandise sold by average inventory figured 
at cost. In the meat trade, using the average weekly peak load as 
the inventory, 1.5 per cent of annual purchases, the stock turn is 
67 times a year. The stock turn on cured is regularly less rapid 
than on fresh meats. Since the usual stock turn on retail groceries 
is approximately 10 times a year, those meat dealers carrying can- 
ned goods or other groceries have a slower movement of their en- 
tire trade; and the group of combination stores furnishing ac- 
counting information were found to have stock turns for the most 
part varying between 20 and 25 times a year. 
A rapid stock turn is usually advantageous in the meat trade as 
in other trades, but the advantages are of a different kind. In the 
meat trade it might better be referred to as promptness of sale, 
since the advantages are almost entirely in avoiding deterioration 
in quality and shrinkage by evaporation. It is a very different 
problem from a rate of stock turn as a matter of tying up capital 
in investment, which is a highly important element in lines of trade 
where the usual rate of stock turn is once or twice a year or even in 
those where the rate is 8 or 10> times a year, although in these trades 
also there is an accompanying factor of deterioration. 
In the retail jewelry trade the usual rate of stock turn is less 
than once a year. In consequence, interest on investment, more than 
75 per cent of which is merchandise inventory, is approximately 
