A Better-Class American Grocery Interior
Showing the coffee bins in orderly array, and the electric coffee grinder
Profits and Costs
Because of its influence on other grocery items, coffee can often be sold at a close margin of profit, particularly if a competitor's store or wagons are cutting into a grocer's neighborhood trade. Twenty-five percent is recommended as a reasonable gross profit on coffee in most cases, although some grocers make less, and not a few make more; the range being usually from twenty to thirty-nine percent. The independent dealer should meet chain-store competition in coffee on a price basis, making a special on a superior grade and figuring to get not more than three cents profit per pound, like his competitor. A bag of roasted coffee will bring back three dollars gain, and the cash to pay for another—and the grocer has kept his customers, ninety percent of whom, theoretically, will have bought their other food supplies from him. As a matter of fact, in the last year of the World War retailers showed a tendency to demand cash on sales of all grocery items. This practise reduces the cost of operation and allows the storekeeper to reduce his prices. A large number of grocers charge a small percentage of the total sale for credit privileges, and five or ten cents for each delivery below a certain total value of the purchase price of the articles to be delivered. As a result, they have been able to meet chain-store competition. Collective buying has also been a factor in offsetting the inroads of the "chains."
A Prize-Winning Window Display
This unusual display of coffee-flavored eatables won first prize for the southern district in the National Coffee Week window-trimming contest. The cakes, pies, tarts, and other pastries which constituted the main feature rested in a bed of green coffee. The customer's interest was cleverly attracted to the dealer's brand by a pyramid of large coffee cans in the center background and by two miniature dining-room sets.
Splitting Nickels