—The jobber gets one-eighth to one-quarter cent per pound pro fit on sugar, generally, and when the market advances he gets the profit and the advance. The retailer sells at cost and can in most cases get no benefit from the advance in the market.
—In a large retail business it takes nearly the whole time of one clerk to weigh out that profitless staple—sugar.
—Most jobbers would be well pleased if all retailers would buy their sugars direct from the refinery, as it does not pay them, even at a profit of A and f cent. Why then should they trust their goods to men whom they know will sell sugars and other staples at cost or less.
—The imports of sugar into the United States during the past thirty years far exceeded the value of all the gold dug out of our mines in the same time. All this sugar passed profitlessly through the hands of the long-suffering grocery trade, and still they are not prepared for a change in the system.
—We feel interested in the sugar question. Without the aid of the trade all our interest will begin and end in theory. What we desire is that those who agree with us will stand up and say so, plainly ; that will keep the ball in motion, and if it results in ac tion we are ready to advocate that action much more forcibly than we have advocated the theory. We decline to believe that the trade has lived under the burden of this mistaken course so long that it is now irreparable, or that retail grocers as a class are not ready to adopt a better mode of doing business in the fwnre. The
world and what was itupo-ssitle years ago, is possible to day. General discussion of this subject will start the reform, general acknowledgment of its desirability will keep it moving, and finally, general association to execute it will accomplish its ultimate success —The old conundrum about the pig of lead and the price of the hog comes to ns as folLws: If a grocer loses two cents on a dol lar's worth of sugar, how much must he make on a box of raisins.
—How much sugar do you sell for the Holiday feasts ? And then how much do you lose on it ? These are pertinent questions, and we hope you will weigh them as carefully as you do the su gar.
—The fathers ate sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge, for the inheritance of selling sugar at cost was not originated by this generation. Can it not be cured before an other ? —Sugar always meets with large demand for consumption how ever the market may stand, and the main effort of the retailer should be to secure at least a moderate profit on his sales of it.
—The trade is very sensitive about advances in sugar, because it requires so much capital to carry this profitless article, but a steady price is much more desirable than a low one, and the strongest efforts of the trade should be made to establish a regu lar price and a moderate but fixed profit.