“The difference between twenty-three cents and twenty-one cents does not represent the whim of the butcher, Mrs. Hall, but the grade of the beef sold, and I might say, also the expenses of store management--what your husband would call overhead expenses. This particular roast, cut from the Argentine beef mentioned in your _Marketing Guide_, could be sold by some butchers at twenty-one cents a pound, because the Argentine beef wholesales at ten to ten and a half a pound. But I handle only fancy, native, stall-fed beef, which wholesales from fourteen and a half to fifteen and a half cents per pound. Our prices here are regulated by what I pay, which is always top notch for selected meats, and by the expense of running the shop. Cleanliness, modern equipment, highly paid clerks, good telephone and delivery service all come high. Then, of course, in a shop like this heavy accounts are carried----” “Oh--then I pay not only for the meat I buy, but must make up your losses from charge customers who do not pay. I really gain nothing by paying my bill weekly.” A great light illuminated Mrs. Larry’s marketing vision. Mr. Dahlgren looked uncomfortable. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Mrs. Hall; but the sort of custom I have, what we call A-1 charge trade, demands the best----” “It can,” asserted Mrs. Larry significantly, “if it does not pay.” “I can’t offer you seconds in meat, poultry or vegetables. Now, take this lettuce----” He picked out a head of choice lettuce and pulled the leaves apart. “See? Not a withered leaf, not a single leaf you could not serve on your table. Fifteen cents. Well, you can go to the dago stand round the corner and buy lettuce for eight or ten cents. My lettuce you have charged and delivered in clean baskets, by clean, respectful delivery boys, and you’ll have enough for two salads. The Italian sells you lettuce that is withered on the outside from long standing in his hot cellar, or small heads from which all the outside leaves are stripped. You pay cash, the lettuce is dusty, it is delivered by a dirty little ragamuffin who ought to be in school, and you get one salad as against two from the head bought here.