“Cash-and-Carry” Spreading

THE BETTER TO MEET the competition of the chain stores, the Independent Grocers’ Alliance—the organization’s name is self-explanatory—is advising its members to adopt the cash-and-carry and self-service systems. The New York World tells us that some two thousand of the members of the Alliance have already complied with the request, and most of the others are expected to do so. Comments The World:

The Alliance has made the interesting discovery that the average purchase is actually larger when the customers wait on themselves; with free access to the shelves they seem to find the goods more tempting, or perhaps they do not arouse the same degree of sales resistance in themselves that a clerk may do.

If the average purchase is larger, it is also effected at less cost to the store. Under the old style of merchandising, the expenses of selling and delivery tend to increase with the volume of the business, but with self-service the expense ratio declines as the volume of sales increases.

There will always be a place for the store with its service and delivery system, but the self-service store is a useful variant which will contribute to reducing the present high cost of merchandise distribution.

It will exist alongside the service and delivery store just as the cafeteria exists beside the regular restaurant. In each case there is plenty of room for both.

Source: The Literary Digest for August 23, 1930