A monopoly for enforcing the loss off system of buying has been brought about in some sections of the West by agreement among egg dealers. In such cases the usual experience has been that some one would get anxious for more business, and begin quoting case count, the result being that he would get the business of the disgruntled shippers in his section. When one buyer begins quoting case count, the remainder rapidly follow suit and case count buying is quickly re-established.
The City Distribution of Eggs.
In name, city egg dealers are usually commission houses, but in practice the majority of large lots of eggs are now bought by telegraph and the prices definitely known before shipment.
In the larger cities eggs are dealt in by a produce board of trade. Such exchanges frequently have rules of grading and an official inspector. This gives stability to egg dealing and largely solves the problem of uncertainty as to quality, so annoying to the country buyer. In the city even, where official grading is not resorted to, personal inspection of the lot by the buyer is practical, and one may know what he is getting.
In many cases, especially in smaller cities, the receiver is the jobber and sells to the grocers. In larger cities the receiver sells to a firm who makes a business of selling them to groceries, restaurants, etc.
The jobber grades the eggs as the trade demands. In a western city this may mean two grades—good and bad; in New York, it may mean seven or eight grades, and the finer of these ones being packed in sealed cartons, perhaps each egg stamped with the dealer's brand.
The city retailer of eggs include grocers, dairies, butcher shops, soda fountains, hotels, restaurants and bakeries. The soda fountain trade and the first-class hotel are among the high bidder for strictly first-class eggs. Many such institutions in eastern cities are supplied directly from large poultry farms. The figures at which such eggs are purchased are frequently at a given premium above the market quotation, or a year round contract price for a given number of eggs per week. This premium over common farm eggs may range from one or two cents in western cities, to five to twenty cents in New York and Boston. An advance of ten cents over the quotation for extras or a year round contract price of thirty-five cents per dozen, might be considered typical of such arrangements in New York City.
Some of the larger chain grocers in New York City are in the market for strictly fresh eggs and have even installed buying departments in charge of expert egg men.
The great bulk of eggs move through the channels of the small restaurant, bakery and grocery. In the small cities of the Central West the grocer handles eggs at a margin of one to three cents. In the South and farther West the margin is two to seven cents, the retail price always being in the even nickel. In the large eastern city there exists the custom unknown in the West of having two or more grades of eggs for sale in the same store. All eggs offered for sale are claimed by the salesman to be "strictly fresh" or the "best," and yet these eggs may vary if it be April from fifteen cents to forty cents, or if in December from thirty cents to seventy-five cents per dozen. The New York grocers' profit is from two to five cents on cheap eggs, but runs higher on high grade eggs, frequently reach twenty cents a dozen and sometimes going as high as forty cents for very fancy stock.
City retailing is by far the most expensive item in the marketing of eggs. As an illustration of the profits of the various handlers of eggs might be as follows: