The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1929-05-02
BATS NOT DIGNIFIED In
MERCHANDISING, Is PLEA
Prof. Boyle of Cornell Univer-
sity, Points Out Damage Done
Agricultural Interests By
Methods of Chain Stores
FARM PRICES DEPRESSED
Use by Chains of Farm Products
as Bats DemOralizes Markets
and Farmers Suffer-Urges
Cooperative Associations
(From The Retail Grocery

Warning the farmers that the cham
stores will put prices down as low as
the traffic will bear, Prof. James E.
Boyle, professor of Rural Economy of
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York,
suggests a strong national organiza-
ton of farmers as the only hope of
dealing with the decentralization
caused by the tactics of the chain
stores in depressing farm prices.
Probably no man in the country is
better able to discuss the chain store
problem as it affects the farmers of
the country than Prof. Boyle, who is
distinguished economist and who
has made an intensive and extensive
study of the subject. He has written
a number of articles on the effect the
practices of the chain stores have had
on agricultural interests that have
attracted nationwide interest.
In an article just written for an
agricultural publication, Prof. Boyle
discusses in logical and convincing
manner the damage chain stores have
done to the farming interests and sug-
gests organization on the part of the
farmers as the only remedy to coun-
teract the damage. He severely criti-
cises the methods of the chains and
declares that the methods used are
hardly worthy of an honorable mer-
chant.
Chains Are Dangerous Competitors
"The greatest market development
of the last fifty years is the chain
store movement" says Prof. Boyle.
"These stores are retailing every farm
and factory products now on the mar
ket, but their greatest growth is in
the food lines, that is, in those lines
which most concern the farmer. AL
ready eight hundred grocery chains
operate sixty thousand unit stores
doing business of three billion dol
lars year.
"The largest of these, the A. & P,
had $500 stores five years ago, and
today it has 1900 stores with total
business of $7OO,OOO,OO0 a year. 1t is
estimated that in another year the
chains will control at least so per
cent of the retail food business of
the country. Their admitted economies
prove that they are here to stay. Their
strong financial position makes them
dangerous competitors for the indie
pendent retailer, for the jobbers and
the wholesalers"
Prof. Boyle says that this tremen-
dous growth of the chain store means
that certain new and serious questions
face the farmer, such as the follow
ing: "What effect will they have on
the price of his product? What effect
will they have on the standardization
of agricultural products? What effect
will they have on the consumption of
farm products ?" He then answers
these questions.
DemOralized Potato Market
'Tn the fall of 1925" he states,
"many of the chain stores put on
special potato week., selling their po-
tatoes below cost There was big
crop of good potatoes. Regular pota
to buyers were nervous over the fu-
ture trend of the market, and they
were on the verge of becoming pan
icky. Therefore, when the chain
stores used the potato as leader or
as bait, it was the last straw.
"The market was demoralized.
There is no mystery about the psy-
chology of the market. Dealers fac
ing a probable loss simply withdrew
as buyers and waited. Especially is
this true in the fruit and vegetable
market, where the stuff itself is per-
ishable and the wholesale buyer can
not protect himself with forward con-
tracts.
$50 the price of potatoes fell so
low that many fields remained undug;
in other sections farmers sold for as
low as ten cents a bushel. The big
crop meant low price, it may be ad-
mitted; but chain store policy still
further depressed this low price. The
farmer was the shock absorber He
bore the brunt of it, for he could not
shift either the risk or the loss to
other shoulders"
Is Typical Chain Merchandising
Prof. Boyle points this out as IN
fortunately typical of chain store
merchandising policy. He then takes
up the canning crops and says that
every year some Gamer of peas, corn,
tomatoes, peaches and so on cans too
big a pack. He rushes to the chain
stores with his surplus. They recog-
nize this surplus as distress" mer-
chandise and drive a hard bargain,
often buying below cost of produc-
ton.
This stuff then becomes a leader.
The effect, if the chain be large one,