BULLETIN 1317, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
METHODS, PRACTICES, AND CONDITIONS IN THE TRADE 
TYPES OF STORES 
Centralization of the slaughtering and meat-packing industry is 
primarily responsible for the passing of the old-fashioned butcher- 
retailer. The city retailer of fresh meats of half a century ago 
was a specialist, and his retail shop, the straight meat market, was 
one form of the specialty store. To-day, because of this centraliza- 
tion and a concomitant development of a system for distributing 
packing-house products to substantially all urban communities and 
to many strictly rural communities, local retail slaughter is very 
largely limited to rural communities. The former city Tetailer, a 
specialist in slaughtering and cutting, is being replaced by a retailer 
who is little more than a salesman, with a resultant shift in type 
of retail store from the straight meat market to the combination 
meat and grocery store. In rural communities the trade is usually 
carried on by the general store or other store of the combination 
type. 
Straight meat markets. — The so-called straight meat markets 
rarely confine their trade to fresh and cured meats. Poultry, fish, 
canned meats, or some combination of the three, and catsup and 
sauces are usually carried, and many carry fresh vegetables both 
in season and out of season. A small percentage of the markets 
handle butter and eggs, and a still smaller percentage carry bread. 
Stalls in public markets. — In many cities there are public markets 
in which stalls leased to individual retailers carry meat. As a rule, 
those selling meats confine their operations to that one line. 
Meat sections in department stores. — In some department stores 
there are independent sections given over to retailing meats. They 
are so few as to be of comparative unimportance. 
Combination meat and grocery stores. — By far the most import- 
ant numerically is the combination meat and grocery store group. 
Only individual or unit stores are included in this classification; 
combination meat and grocery stores organized on a chain-store 
basis are included under chain stores. For simplification, the com- 
paratively few general merchandise stores retailing fresh meats 
are included under combination meat and grocery stores. 
Chain stores. — A chain-store system has been well defined as "a 
group of scattered stores with single ownership and centralized 
management." It is an attempt to combine the advantages of 
large-scale buying and other economies effected by centralized con- 
trol with the advantages of the scattered individual stores con- 
veniently located with respect to customers. By far the greater 
number of chain stores that handle fresh meats are of the combi- 
nation meat and grocery type, comparatively few being straight 
meat markets. A number of cl^ain systems operate two or more 
types — straight meat markets, combination stores, straight grocery 
stores. 
DISTEIBUTION OF VARIOUS TYPES OF STORES 
In the 33 cities and other urban districts from which complete 
data regarding types of stores were obtained, 61.35 per cent of the 
stores were of the combination meat and grocery type ; 26.86 per cent 
