Those Meat Shops.

Manawatu Herald, 11 August 1903, Page 3

Those Meat Shops.

MR CAMERON—THEORY VERSUS PRACTICE. Mr W. Nelson writes from Tomoana, Hawke’s Bay, as follows I have before me Mr Cameron’s estimates for ruuning a butcher’s shop as indicated in the “ Hawke’s Bay Herald ” in a paragraph headed “ A Rosy Picture.” It is indeed a “ rosy picture,” and had I not known that Mr Cameron had been interesting himself more or less for some years in the meat trade I .should have thought he knew precious little about his business, or rather the business he proposes to enter on. Shortly, his figures appear to indicate that on the sale of 35 sheep, 75 lambs and three bullocks per week he intends to make a profit of £137 3s per annum ; the following year, on a somewhat increased turnover £289 6s 8d profit; in the third year, £979 12s 7d profit —all on a capital of £2OOO, This makes me feel that I should like to scrape together £2OOO, acquire Mr Cameron and make money. But so much for “theorynow for “practice.” On page 209, issued May 18th, of the “ Pastoralists Review,” I find the following :—“ Eastmans, Ltd., made £56,000 net profit for the year’s trading, they have 905 shops, their sales were £2,500,000, their profit as given above come to about 25s per Aveek at each shop net.” Now, here is an old established firm that has been running for very many years, and presumably with the keenest management, yet it can onl / show a profit of 25s per Aveek, Avhile Mr Cameron Avith a stroke of his pen slioavs us the Avay to make nearly £l9 per Aveek after onlythree. years’ Avork. Comment is unnecessary. By the way, I read last Aveek in one of your Wellington papers that the retail butchers in your city are defrauding the public to a greater extent even than their brethern in London. Do they all make £l9 a week clear profit (in one shop) or more, and if so, hoAV much ?