9. Deliverymen:

(a) Delivery salesmen: Milk, ice, laundry, etc.

(b) Retail and wholesale delivery men.

10. Messengers, bundle and cash girls and boys in stores.

11. Miscellaneous: Auctioneers, meat cutters, newspaper vendors, waiters, stewards, and organization housekeepers.

A definition of distributive occupational subjects as provided under the George-Deen Act is also presented for inclusion in the record: Distributive occupational subjects are vocational subjects taught in part-time and evening classes to workers engaged in distributive occupations. Instruction in either part-time or evening schools must be limited to vocational or related distributive subjects which are supplemental to the daily empo¥• ment of the pupils enrolled.

A vocational distributive subject is one involving a discussion or presentation of the specific working practices of a distributive ooupation for the prpse of increasing the skill, technical knowledge, occupational information, or judgu ent of workers engaged in that specifie occupation.

A related distributive subject is one which is intended to enlarge the vocational knowledge, understanding, morale, or judgment of workers from one or more distributive occupations. Thus, subjects bearing on the production and preparation of the commodities sold, the consumer demand for such commodities, social contacts for store workers, laws affecting stores and business, art principles to be followed in the display of goods or preparation of advertisements, science in the sanitary handling of perishable goods, business organization and management, economics of retailing, are all examples of related distributive subjects.

Distributive occupations are those followed by workers directly engaged in nerchandising activities, or in direct contact with buyers and seilers when-

(a) Distributing to consumers, retailers, jobbers, wholesalers, and others the products of farm and industry.

(b) Managing, operating, or conducting a commercial service or personal service business, or selling the service of such a business.

Distributive occupations do not include clerical occupations such as stenog. raphy, bookkeeping, office clerical work, and the like; nor do they include trade and industrial work followed by those engaged in radroad, truck. g, or other transportation activities.

To give the committee some idea of the number of workers in distributive occupations chart I was prepared using the census reports on gainfully occupied persons in this country in 1930. The bars showing the number of workers in agricultural, trade and industrial, an i distributive occupations are drawn to the same scale. You will see that the trade or distributive division of workers totaled over 6,000.00 workers. This chart shows that the distributive workers were the third largest division in 1930, being exceeded only by the agricultural and industrial divisions. According to this classification, 1 worker out of S in this country in 1930 was employed in a distributive occupation The census classification did not include in the trade division as of the workers in distributive occupations.

Chart II was drawn to the same scale as chart I and includes all of the distributive occupational groups reported in the census of 10m The different groups are arranged to show the number of workers on the different levels in distributive occupations in 1930 —–—–—– A summary of the different levels is given in the table below. The table shows that over 8,000,000 workers can properly be included in the distributive occupational group This would indicate that I worker out of each 6 in this country in 1930 was employed in a distributive opation.

TABLE I.-Summary of workers on different levels in distributive occupations in 1930

1 Does not include farm owners, operators, etc.

1 Des not include managers, officiais, supervisors, and foremen on farms.

In ludes some apprentices, craft learners employed by large stores.

500, 512

2, 102, 509

223, 050

63, 252

7, 533

401, 991

604, 812

446, 224

32, 444

(4)

8, 329, 917

•No_number_ncluded because accurate classification is impossible. Cersus reports total 2,046,270, procably 1,000,000 of whom have important daily working contacts with customers.

The chart and the table also show there were over 3,000,000 store owners, proprietors, and others on the owning and managing level; that there were about half a million managers and officials, and about three-quarters of a million workers who were local agents with managerial responsibilities. There were over 2,000,000 salespeople and about 400,000 who were called clerks in stores. Just what work they did we do not know. This is an occupational designation used by the

census.

A large number of beginners is needed each year to replace those of the 8 million distributive workers who die or quit this field of employment. Some beginners are needed also to provide for the employment of additional distributive workers. The high schools should provide some of the trained beginners needed. But the high schools are preparing very few youth for distributive occupations. In 1933 only 28,000 students were enrolled in salesmanship classes out of a total of 6 million students in high schools. Most of these salesmanship classes were taught from textbooks by teachers who had had no experience in selling. Such classes cannot be regarded as giving worth-while preparation for selling and other kinds of store work.

Effective vocational preparation for retail store work was given in 1933 to only 9,500 high school youths. The relative contribution of these classes is shown in chart II; also in table II.

The public school contribution toward preparation for distributive occupations is utterly inadequate when it is realized that about 120,000 beginners at ages 18 and 19, and about 130,000 more at ages between 20 and 24 enter distributive occupations each year. The accompanying table shows that vocational courses to prepare youth while in high school for employment in distributive occupations is needed very badly.

TABLE 11-Young workers in distributive occupations in 1930 and pupils in high school salesmanship, advertising, and retail selling classes in 1933

1. A large percentage of young workers is employed in distributive occupations:

AGE GROUPS AND PERCENT OF ALL WORKERS AT THAT AGE

14 to 17 years.......

18 to 19 years....

20 to 24 years....

10

2. Number of young workers employed in distributive occupations is increasing rapidly except at ages 14 to 17:

3. Proportion of young workers employed in distributive occupation is rising rapidly except at ages 14 to 17.

4. Changes in proportions of young workers indicate that young male workers are increasing in proportion while females are decreasing.

5. Orly a very small proportion of high-school youth receive any instruction specifically preparing for employment in distributive occupations.

Chart III and table III both show that here in America the bulk of our retail stores are small stores. In 1933, out of a total of a million and a half stores that were reported in the Census of American Business, 64 percent were stores that had sales of less than $10,000 a year. Many, many stores have sales totaling only a few thousand dollars a year. When you see the big department stores, you may think they dominate retailing, but in 1933 we had only 765 stores in this country, each reporting sales of a million dollars or over. In that year we had almost a million stores in the country each reporting sales of less than $10,000. Table III gives a summary of the data given in full in table V.

1. Small retail stores are a very large proportion of all stores.

TABLE III.-Retail stores and sales, by size of store, 1929 and 1933

[Data from Census of American Business-Retail Distribution, Vol. I, United States Aummary, 1933]

1 These figures and percentages are cumulative, each including the preceding.

2. Very small stores make only a small proportion of total annual sales.

These figures and percentages are cumulative, each including the preceding.

3. Changes in number of retail stores indicate rapid turn-over; 9 percent disappear each year.

4. New stores and businesses disappear soon. Of 539 new businesses in Colorado in 1929, 41 percent disappeared within 1 year, 55 percent disappeared within 2 years, and 80 percent disappeared within 7 years.

5. Major causes of failures and bankruptcies can be much reduced by vocational education.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Were they on a profit-paying basis?

Mr. BARNHART. A large proportion of them were not. For example the Colorado survey of mortality of retail stores, which we received the other day, showed that 41 percent of the 539 new stores that opened in 1929 in Colorado, outside of Denver, closed within the first year; 55 percent closed within 2 years; and 80 percent within 7

years.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Individual stores?

Mr. BARNHART. Individual stores.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Not part of a chain?

Mr. BARNHART. No. These stores were not part of any chain. They were independent stores throughout the State outside of Denver.

Mr. RICH. You spoke about stores that had a business of a million dollars. Mighty few stores have that much business?

Mr. BARNHART. Seven hundred and sixty-five in the whole country in 1933.

Mr. RICH. In the country stores and the small stores get down around $10,000 or $30,000 or $50,000?

Mr. BARNHART. That is what I am trying to emphasize. The bulk of the distributors in this country, from the point of view of the number of workers, are in the small-store group. But they do not do a proportionate amount of the business. In 1929 the total sales of the retail stores in this country were $19,000,000,000, and the big milliondollar stores got over one-eighth of all the business. In 1933 the million-dollar stores made 10 percent of the sales, while the 980,000 small stores, each selling less than $10,000 a year, made only 14 percent of all the retail sales.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. What percentage did they have of the people working in the stores?

Mr. BARNHART. In 1933 the million-dollar stores reported 13 percent of all the retail-store employees, the very small stores reported the same percentage; but 69 percent of all the retail-store proprietors owned small stores selling less than $10,000 a year. Chart III shows you that. This chart shows the number of people employed in stores of different sizes.

Mr. Ricн. Will you take those figures and present them to us? Mr. BARNHART. Table IV will show these figures and the percentages. The stores having a million-dollar business and over, reported a total of 345,000 workers, while the very small stores, selling less than $10,000, reported about a million and a half workers. All the stores selling less than $50,000 a year reported 76 percent of all the retail-store workers in this country.

TAKE IV. Retail store proprietors and employees in 1933 according to te'ai avval sales of s'ores

[I-ata from. Census of American Business, Retail Distribution, vol I United States Summary, Isaå' 1 NEARLY ALL RETAIL STORE PROPRIETORS OWN SMALL STORES

ZENETOYEES OF LETAIL », ORFS AKE FAILLY FVENLY DISTLIL' TED

ai.ve, each. „ncis! ng the preeeling.

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