Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-02-11

people pay % cents Tor porteTnouse, ~
cents for sirloin and rib. and is cents
for round, with the other cuts in pro-
norton. on this basis he would sell So. "A
worth of beef from the carcass-a gross
profit of over So per cent Mark you, this
with no change I'm his figures other than
to increase his retail quotations to what
the average American is now paying at
the butcher shop.
one is not entirely dependent on Sec
rotary wilson's figures or upon those of
the St Louis butcher to show the gross
profits of the retailer. The butchers have
text books and they offer further cor
roboration One of these is THE Mod
ern Butcher" and the auhtor, a meat
cutter Of 90 years experience. shows how
a carcass must be cut up asd priced at
retail in order to yield a profit of 20 per
cent In an Scent carcass, to yield
this profit, the poFterhouse and sirloin
must be retailed at II cents, and the
round steak at 13 cents. In a scent
carcass the former must be sold at is
cents and the latter at Is, with the other
cuts I'm proportion. Let the reader COM
pare these prices with those he pays and
figure out his percentages.
s/s
What obtains in beef prices is true OF
other meats Chickens that sell for Il
cents a pound $50 miles from Washington
bring p cents when they reach there. A
young man residing in Washington is
part owner of a farm in Virginia, within
$50 miles of the national capital He re-
Iates that when the corner grocer sells
, Indifferent eggs at 40 cents a dozen, those
on hts farm are bringing so cents. When
apples sell at 81 bushel on the farm the
reigning price at the corner grocery is
sL60 a bushel. The best country sausage
brings u cents "A pound on the farm and
from 20 TO % cents in the Washington
grocery. John A. Stewart, of New York,
relates how asparagus raised in northern
, New York sold for 3 cents a bunch
on the farm, cents a bunch in the
neighboring village, and 45 cents bunch
in New York
1t is the same with the other things
the grocer sells. The January quotation
for matches retailing at two boxes for
5 cents was $1-6o per IA boxes. The
highest grades of Java and Mocha coffee
were quoted at Is and "a cents a pound
respectively. Extra fancy dried peaches
were priced at 9 cents a pound; the
finest salmon at is cents per can, the
best baked beans at s1.l5 a dozen cans
Decent bottles of horse radish at So 1-2
cents a dozen; Decent bottles of petro-
leum jelly at 70 cents a dozen; 25-cent
bottles of Iaudanum at $50 per dozen;
EPSON salts at cents pound. and
so on without end.
1t is plain, therefore; that the retail
food dealer gets a large gross profit He
lays heavy tribute upon the consumer,
but what about his net profit? One sees
but little evidence that he enjoys much
of that Few grocers are getting rich
and many OF them go into bankruptcy
Aye. there Is the rub. Competition sup
posed to be the life of trade, has broken
UP the food retailing business into such
little bits that each retailer must make
an enormous profit to get a living out
OF his business. He must live whether
he sells $500 year or $4,000 The small
er his sales the greater per cent he must
add TO each dollars worth of business,
and the larger his business the closer
margin he can give.
The situation is the same in other
things which the consumer uses.
country merchant went to Baltimore to
buy goods. He bought a suit of clothes
at $3.50 which he retailed at $40. a Pam
anna hat for 81. which retailed at S. Col
lars at 50 cents a dozen, which retailed
dA sA.oe per GoLen. Dolls bought for 80
cents dozen were 10 be retailed at 10
cents each. Toys which would bring %
cents each at retail were bought at 81 80
a dozen. Statistics show that the best
sewing machines cost only about s14 to
make. and bicycles even less Shoe
strings that are sold for cents a pair
cost 60 cents a gross.
But with all these figures, the average
merchant is not growing rich. The re-
taller must pay his rent, his help and his
delivery expenses. His rent is higher be-
cause the lot on which the building stands
is worth twice as much as 10 years ago.
The landlord had to pay Sc a day for the
bricklayer and the plasterer. and 81 a day
for the carpenter who erected the build
ing And so IL goes all down the line.
The farmer must have more for his beef
cattle than he realized 20 years ago, for
the labor he hires costs him as much
again. The Iaborer must have twice as
much as he had % years ago. for his
clothes. his food and his rent have
doubled in price. Relative prices have
increased relatively everywhere. but what
difference does IL make to the average