New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-12-29
THE GREENGROCER'S PROFITS.
HIS PRICES ARE 50 TO 100 PER CENT
ABOVE THE FARMERS.
COMPLAINTS OF THE PRODUCER THAT HE GErA
,xpr.soNAPr.Y LOW FIGURES FOR HIS
WARES EXPLANATIONS OF THE RE-
TAIL MERCHANT.

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF THE Fh-
TAI. MERCHANT
| 7. e. uau Lnovn that vegetables OF all kinds bring
high nrces at retail in this city, but 1t is not Sd
we'll understood how wide Is the difference between
those figures and the sums which truck larIie'S re-
ceve for their produce With the desire OF learning
| what this margin OF profit was Tribune reporter
the other day got interviews with seVeral FARMERS
a, the spaclous Ciansevoort Market and NUMBER
of retailers vegetables In Fulton ana washington
markets and on different avenues on both sloes Oh
| the city
Several farmers who had just sold out their ioads
selected one OF their number an intelligent mioule-
| ooed man IN act as their spokesman. and. while
some OF them occasionally prompted him. all acqu-
esced In his statement as follows: III IS true 'na
the farmers get much less for their produce than
is worth and that the grocers VINO buy IL from tHei
retail IL at enormous profits. The farmer not only
has a hard row hoe his farm. out mas one thae
ia lust as hard when he comes to market. where
the grocers beat him down to prices that are of'en
SO low that he Is compelled to sell MS produce a' an
actual loss In this great Tarket-piace you VIII
often see hundreds OF farm wagons loaded with all
kinds OF vegetables and hundreds OF grocers either
riding or walking about from wagon TO wagon
haggling with the farmers about prices ana nooihs
off from buying until the farmer Is compelled 10 &C
cept their Offer so as to return home for another
load.
FARMERS EXPEND MUCH TINE AND MONEY
come
State including Staten and Long Islands, and from
| New-Jersey within about thirty miles from this
CITY Some arrive here In the evening ana are
obliged to stable their horses at 30 cents head az
we'll as to pay for lodgings for themselves All nave
to pay 25 day for an inside stand Tor their
wagons, and those who secure corner STANDS nave
to pay 50 cents apiece for them. Then the farmers
have to pay carriers from 30 to rs cents apiece for
helping them carry their produce TO the grocers'
wagons. matter how short the distance may De-
In spring. summer and fall the farmers come 10
market from three 10 six times week. ana Two
times a week in winter, when the weather VIII per-
nit.
So far as the prices the farmers get from the
grocers are concerned you can take some OF the
leading vegetables cold here to-day. although or
course, the variety Is much smaller than II was
earlier in the season Long Island and New-Jersey
potates have selling so to 80 cents barrel;
cabbages from 81 to 81 per hundred heads not m
Guiding the trash which is sold TO pusncart peu-
ers for almost nothing; Long Island celery from
90 cents to 81 per dozen punches, containing ABOUT
six roots each: cauaowers for from - % 10 IS per
barrel containing an average Of about thirty heads
each; white onions for 81 80 to 50 80 barrel; yellow
turnps from 10 cents 80 cents barrel. and other
vegetables at proportionate prices all screwed DOW"
the lowest notch by the grocers
A full-sized vegetable barrel vii. contain the
farmers say. three bushels. twelve pecks. or
ninety-six quarts of -four or meal, which can De
evenly measured. AS the measures are heaped up
grocers cannot sell ninety-sx quarts TO the barrel
The generally estimate that the grocers get
at least seven pecks, ffty-siX quarts or vege-
tables from barrel, and some place the estimate
high sixty quarts. In the appended estimate
of the prices realized by grocers In retailing Vege-
tables In small auantities the al are
which Is the lowest estimate made by the farmers
EXAMPLES OF HIGH RETAIL PRICES
ENACTED.
Greengrocers in Fulton and Washn gton markets
and on some of the avenues tire same day that
the reporter saw the farmers gave TO him the fol-
lowing retail quotations. the higher prices being
those in Fulton Market and in S.Xth-ave.: Pota-
toes. from 20 80 peck. equal 10 from 81 10
to 81 10 a barrel: cabbages. from 10 cents head
equal to from 81 10 s. per hundred heads: celery
from 10 Is a bunch. equal 10 from 81 ~ to
81 50 per dozen lunches caulid0wers. from 10 10 20
cents a head. equal to from s. % TO 81 barre;
white onions. from 10 to ~ cents halt-peck equal
to from s. 10 to Sc so barrel yellow turnps from
TO 10 cents haf-peck, equal to from 81 Il TO 81 ~
Il barrel
should exact apparent profit ranging from 80 10
100 per from their customers entered special
pleas laying great stress on nigh rents ana cther
expenses, besides large losses through credits TO
their customers and from deterioration OF Nese-
tables their hands before they could he sod. The
losses through trusting customers on passoook ac-
/ counts, they said. often amounted 20 several hun
drcds of dollars on single account. Vegetables
were perlshabe. they said. especially In sum-
amount TO fully % per cent year OK course there
was less loss in winter. bur then vegetables
had to be constantly picked over and sorted II
/ much labor and expense
The necessity for keeping horses and wagons was
another item OF expense cited. No one would ad-
nit that there an unreasonable margin be-
tween the prices paid the farmers and those
acted from consumers. All declared their green
GOODS business to be hazardous and Improbable
like for it Is far less trouble and always Know
just where | stand"