Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/173

Rh Bureau of Business Research has ascertained that the common rate of turnover for retail hardware stores is 2.1; for retail jewelry stores only 0.9. But for wholesale grocery stores it is 6.1. Statistics collected by the Division of Analysis and Research of the Federal Reserve Board from 300 department stores showed that at the end of 1920 their stocks were on the average equal to about four months consumption. In the early part of 1921 the large chain stores of the country appeared to have from two to four months stock of goods on hand. The large mail order houses apparently have to carry about three months supply. Of course, in any business of this kind miscalculation of the market for seasonal goods, which necessitates the carrying over of winter merchandise from one year to another will have a great effect upon the total stock of goods on hand in the country at any given time.

For estimating the stock of goods there seems to be no other way than to resort to the census for 1912 as a starting point. According to this, the stocks on hand at the end of the year were as follows:

Agricultural products..................... $ 5,240,019,651 Manufactured products................... 14,693,861,489 Mining products......................0-- 815,552,233 Imported merchandise.................... 826,632,467 Total. ...... cece cece eens $21,576,065,840

The above total works out to about $225 per person of the population in 1912. The reliability of the figure may be subjected to a rough test. The amount of the national income in 1912 was about 32.6 billion dollars, out of which probably about five billion dollars was saved and 27.6 billion dollars was spent for goods. The estimated stock of goods at the end of the year was