purchases. Chain-store organizations seem to be growing
rapidly, however; the largest of the chains, the Great Atlantic &
Pacific Tea Co., reporting in 1921 that it had nearly five thousand
branches throughout the country, which sell 40,000,000 pounds of coffee
annually. This chain has a capitalization of $12,000,000, and in 1920
sold $225,000,000 worth of groceries, as compared with $154,718,124 in
the preceding year. This company opens about five hundred new stores
every year.

The chain-store men are organized in the National Chain Store Grocers
Association, having thirty members, representing 12,000 stores,
operating in eighteen states. It is estimated that there are fifty
responsible chain-store grocery organizations in the United States,
representing about 30,000 stores. The chain-store grocer turns his stock
over from twelve to twenty-five times a year, sells for cash, makes no
deliveries, and claims to save the consumer an average of fifteen
percent in buying. These stores do business on a net margin not
exceeding three percent on sales, as against the average retail grocer's
thirty percent, while their average gross cost of doing business has
been stated as between thirteen and one-half percent (lowest) and
eighteen and one-half percent (highest).

According to Alfred H. Beckmann, secretary-treasurer of the National
Chain Store Grocers' Association,[337] "Public appreciation of the chain
grocery store is rapidly growing. Ten years ago it was estimated that
chain stores in what is known as the Metropolitan district of New York
did about 12-1/2 percent of the volume of business in their line, while
today it is estimated at about fifty percent".

It is estimated that the fifty-odd chain store organizations in the
United States distribute through their 30,000 stores 270,000,000 pounds
of coffee a year, or about twenty percent of the total amount consumed
in the United States.

_Starting in the Retail Coffee Business_

When taking up the retail merchandising of coffee, the practical grocer
learns all he can about the popular grades to be had in the principal
markets, and how the coffees are grown, roasted, blended, and ground. He
also ascertains the best methods of brewing, testing out each grade and
kind on his own table, if he does not have testing facilities in his
store. He studies the relative trade values of different varieties of
coffee, and the requirements of his particular clientele.

An interesti