The Chain Store Problem in 1930

Archive Report

Sales by chain stores during the calendar year 1929 amounted to 18.9 per cent of the total retail business transacted in the United States, according to an estimate1 by W. J. Baxter, director of research for the Chain Store Research Bureau. In 1921, according to the same authority, chain-store sales amounted to only 4 per cent of total retail trade. Estimates, from various sources, of the volume of chain-store business in recent years are:
YearTotal retail salesChain-store salesPercentage
1927$40,000,000,000$5,000,000,00012.5
192842,000,000,0006,200,000,00014.8
192945,000,000,0008,525,000,00018.9

Whether these figures give an approximately correct impression of the rate of chain-store growth is a question which cannot at present be answered with any degree of assurance because of the lack of comprehensive data covering the total retail business of the United States and the volume of ...

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