Retail Prices, 1907 to December, 1915

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS ROYAL MEEKER, Commissioner BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES ) . /WHOLE 1Q7 BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS ) \ NUMBER 1 Vi RETAIL PRICES AND COST OF LIVING SERIES: No. 17 RETAIL PRICES 1907 TO DECEMBER, 1915 JUNE, 1916 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1916 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis CONTENTS. Page. Introduction................................................................................................................................ 5 ,6 Sum m ary...................................................................................................................................... 7-29 F ood....................................................................................................................................... 7-27 Y early price changes............................................................................................... 7-10 M onthly price changes............................................................................................ 11-20 Yearly and monthly price changes, by geographical divisions................ 20-23 Dealers’ comments on price changes................................................................. 24-27 Bread weights..................................................................................................................... 27,28 Coal......................................................................................................................................... 28,29 Scope of study and m ethod of obtaining prices.............................................................. 30-44 F ood.................................................................................................................. .....................31-41 Bread weights..................................................................................................................... 41,42 D rygood s............................................................................................................................. 42,43 Coal......................................................................................................................................... 43 Gas...................................................................................................... ................................... 43,44 E xplanation of tables...............................................................................................................44-46 T able A.—Retail prices of the principal articles of food on the 15th of each month, July to December, 1914, and July to December, 1915, by cities and b y firm s.................................................................................................................................. 47-292 T able B.—Bread weights: Scaling weight (weight of dough before baking), in ounces, of the principal brands of wheat bread, on the 15th of each month, July to December, 1914, and July to December, 1915, by cities and by firms and b ra n d s......................................................................................................................... 293-301 T able C.—Relative retail prices of the principal articles of food, 1907 to December, 1915, by geographical divisions.............................................................. 302-324 T able D.—Retail prices of 8 articles of dry goods on May 15 and October 15, 1915, b y cities and b y firm s.......................................................................................... 325-352 T able E.—Retail prices of coal for household use on July 15,1914, and July 15,1915, b y cities and b y firms................................................................................... 353-369 T able F.—Net price per 1,000 cubic feet for gas for household use on April 15 and October 15,1915, b y cities and b y com panies................................................... 370 A ppe n d ix .— Change in average prices and in amount of various articles of food that could be bought for one dollar, 1890 to 1915................................................. 371-381 3 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis BULLETIN OF THE U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. WHOLE NO. 197. WASHINGTON. JUNE>1916- RETAIL PRICES, 1907 TO DECEMBER, 1915. INTRODUCTION. This bulletin, continuing the regular series on Retail Prices and Cost of Living, gives the actual sale prices during 1915 of 29 articles of food, 8 textiles, 2 kinds of anthracite coal, 1 bituminous coal, and gas. The prices per loaf of bread, together with the scaling weights before baking, are also shown in Table B. To enable the reader to see the percentage changes in prices more readily, the money prices of 26 articles of food and of stove, chest nut, and bituminous coal are reduced to relative prices, the average prices for 1915 being taken as 100. Individual relative prices for 15 of the 26 food commodities have been computed for the period 1907 to 1913, and for these commodities general weighted relative prices or index numbers have been calculated for that period, the price of each article being weighted according to the quantity consumed in the average workingman’s family, as shown in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor. Beginning with 1914, satis factory prices and weights for two other food commodities, chuck roast and plate boiling beef, have been obtained, and these additional articles are included in the relative prices and the index numbers for 1914 and 1915. For all the months of 1915 the weighted index numbers for the five geographical divisions and for the United States have been constructed from the actual prices of 21 different food commodities. The 4 commodities added to the former list are cheese, rice, tea, and coffee. While relative prices were made from the actual money prices of onions, beans, prunes, raisins, and canned salmon, these prices were not used in making the weighted price index num ber because no weights could be ascribed to them. No relative prices were computed for 3 articles for which actual prices are quoted in Table A of this report. These articles are leg of lamb, generally known to the trade as “ yearling,” but which term, with some firms, includes sheep of varying ages at different seasons of the year; storage eggs, for which quotations are secured for only four months of each year; and oranges, the sizes of which vary from one season to another. 5 Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 6 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. The actual prices per pound of bread and the corresponding rela tive prices have not up to the present time been calculated, because some of the bread weights reported by bakers have not, until recently, been entirely satisfactory. It is believed that the scaling weights of bread are now sufficiently accurate, and hereafter the price of bread will be quoted by the pound, relative prices for bread will be cal culated, and bread prices will be included in the retail price indexes. Actual prices of eight kinds of dry goods, of three kinds of coal, and of manufactured and natural gas are given. The coal prices are reduced to relatives, but are not included in the retail price index numbers. It is greatly to be desired that the retail price index should be extended to include dry goods used for clothing and house furnishings, fuel, and rents, as well as a larger number of foods, but this can not be done until acceptable weights can be found for each new article to be added to the present list. The money prices at retail are shown for food, dry goods, and fuel in Tables A, D, E,'and F. Relative prices for the most important foods are presented in sum mary form in Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4, and for coal in Table 6, the more striking changes in prices being discussed in the text. Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis BETATL PEICES, 1907 TO DEOEMBEB, 1915. 1 SUMMARY. FOOD. Table 1 presents the individual relative prices and the combined index numbers of 15 food commodities for the period 1907 to 1913, and of 17 food commodities for 1914 and 1915. The combined relative price or index number for 1915 is made up, as explained above, from the average prices of 21 articles of food, but in making the index number for 1914 only the prices of the 17 articles reported for both years were compared, in order to get the percentage the 1914 prices were of the 1915 prices. In the same manner the index num ber for 1913 was made by comparing the prices of the 15 commodities reported for 1913 with the identical articles reported in 1914, and so on year by year back to 1907. Tabm 1.—YEARLY AVERAGE RELATIVE RETAIL PRICES OF FOOD, 1907 TO 1915, AS COMPARED WITH AVERAGE PRICES FOR X915. [Average price for 1915—100.] Article. 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 Sirloin steak........ ................. 71 73 76 79 80 90 99 101 100 Round steak......................... 66 69 71 76 76 ST 97 103 100 Rib roast........................ 75 77 80 83 84 92 99 102 100 Chuck roast.......................... 105 100 Plate boiling beef................. 104 100 Pork chops........................... 77 79 86 95 88 95 104 109 100 Bacon, smoked..................... 75 77 83 95 92 91

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