in the interests of both producers and consumers it is desirable 
that information as to the total stocks of meat in cold store 
should be available at any time to the general public. The Royal 
Commission on Food Prices, after hearing the evidence on the 
question, reported that they were satisfied that ‘‘ the time has 
come to require proprietors of cold stores to supply this informa- 
tion at regular intervals to the appropriate authority.” The 
weight of opinion, both in the trade itself and among the public, 
may be said to favour publication of total stocks held. 
(iv) Retail Distribution.—The final link in the chain which 
connects producer and consumer is the retail meat-seller. Supplies 
collected from numerous stock-owners flow from the freezing 
works like a mighty river until, as they approach their ultimate 
destination, there is a great dispersion, the river ending, as it 
began, in small streams. There is, too, a similarity of method 
at the extremities, for farming and meat-retailing remain two of 
the most individualistic ‘occupations. 
There are said to be some 40,000* retail butchers’ shops in 
shis country, most of them individually owned and worked by 
the owner. On the other hand, there are many instances of 
retail butchers who own and manage several shops in one district. 
There are, again, the chains of shops established by various 
importing companies; most of these, however, have been absorbed 
by the interests grouped under the Union Cold Storage Company, 
which are now said to control 2,356* retail departments. Lastly, 
many retail co-operative societies have their own butchery 
departments which may consist of one or several shops; similarly, 
and notably in London, these are the meat departments of 
departmental stores. It may be noted that the American meat 
companies do not control retail shops either in this country or in 
she United States. 
Retail distribution is the most expensive operation in the 
brocess of marketing, because of the relatively limited volume of 
business which each unit can conveniently handle and of the 
multiplicity of services which are normally required. The costs 
of retail distribution, hence, therefore, retail prices, vary with 
the nature and extent of these services. In contrast to the 
general uniformity of wholesale meat prices throughout the 
country, retail prices are not uniform even in the same street. 
[n the wholesale trade in imported meat, the country can be 
regarded as, more or less, one market; in the retail trade, every 
own and almost every district in a town is a market in itself, 
and prices may vary from shop to shop according to the 
lemands of customers in such matters as calling for orders, credit, 
delivery, style of shop, and, finally but not least important, the 
kind of joint. These and other questions relating to the 
meat trade were fully investigated by the Royal Commission 
on Food Prices,t and it is unnecessary to discuss them here. 
* ‘““ Report of Royal Commission on Food Prices.” Cmd. 2390. 1925. 
* Cmd. 2390. 1925. Part V. See also ‘‘ Report of Linlithgow Com- 
aiittee on Meat. Poultry and Eggs.” Cmd. 1927. 1923.