Finds Profit Too Small

The University bureau of business research, acting with the co-operation and financial assistance of the National Dry Goods Asociation, after a pioneer survey of doing business in department stores, has come to the conclusion that a read-justment of operating expenses is necessary to restore net profit to normal in this business. The average net profit realized in the department store trade in 1921 was 1.3 per cent, of net sales, which is considered too small. The bureau also discovered that a rapid rate of stock-turn is fully as important in department stores as in other businesses.

The bureau summaries are presented in a bulletin and based on reports from 301 firms in all parts of the country, with an aggregate volume of sales of nearly half a billion dollars.