Part 2 (1/2)
PARIS has one of the anized municipal market systems in Europe The chief food distribution center for the 3,000,000 Parisians is established at the Halles Centrales, a series of ten pavilions covering twenty-two acres of ground and intervening streets
Altogether this great terminal market has cost the city more than 10,000,000
Most of the pavilions are entirely for the wholesale trade, but some are used as retaildecreased gradually, so that whereas in 1904 there were 1,164 retail stands there are now only 856
The total receipts of the Halles Centrales and thirty local markets amount to 2,100,000, of which _about 1,000,000 is profit_ There is a general advance in the wholesale trade, but the local coveredin the same way, so the city does not quite maintain a steady level of market profit
[Illustration: THE HALLES CENTRALES, PARIS
An Outside View, Showing How the Supplies Overflow into the Adjacent Streets, Notwithstanding the Provision of Twenty-two Acres of Covered Pavilions]
The reasons given for the falling off of the retail trade are various, but the principal causes appear to be (1) the growth of big stores, with local branches, that deliver the goods at the door, thus relieving the purchaser of the necessity of taking ho produce sales neither store rent nor rowth of co-operative societies
A cooverns the markets
Commission salesmen at the Halles Centrales ive a bond of not less than 1,000 in proof of solvency Producers may have their supplies sold either at auction or by private treaty, as they prefer, and as none of the agents are allowed to do business for therowers have confidence in the market methods
In the retail markets each dealer in fresh meat pays just under 600 a week in all, while dealers in salted etables pay a much lower rate All, however, in the covered ht to occupy a stand, one for the cleaning and arranging of the uardians and officials In the open markets the stands are rented by the day, week, or year, the rate for the day ranging fro to space Several of these localback to pre-revolution days, that cannot now be annulled
It would be difficult to devise a e year's seizures include half a etables and half a million pounds of salt water fish
Thus the Parishouse, where supplies are inspected and sold under such conditions as to prevent the artificial raising of prices It also acts as a feeder to the reat convenience of local consuuarded, for on his supplies a sed by the salesents especially detailed for that purpose
HAVRE, the well-known French seaport, with a population of 130,000, has a profit of over six per cent on the Halles Centrales and ten per cent on the fish market All told there is _a profit of 27,000_ on the twelve municipal markets
[Illustration: KEEN MORNING BUYERS
In the Game Section of the Paris Halles Centrales]
The Halles Centrales occupy an entire square in the center of the city and cost 75,000, exclusive of the site Gardeners and farmers are not permitted to sell their produce on the way to the market and are only allowed to deliver to storekeepers after the wholesale markets are closed Here, as elsewhere where the markets are successful, every precaution is taken to avoid the prosperity of the hborhood The annual rents for butchers are very etable dealers 4285 to 9264; dairy produce dealers 5211 to 8511, fishers 2316 to 8685 In the wholesale markets there is an annual trade turnover worth well above 1,000,000, of which fish represents 280,000 So far fro the fish market detrimental to their interests, they welco sales on the quays or transit sheds except under special permits
LYONS, with a population of half aFrench provincial city at a considerable distance from the sea The principal market, La Halle, is known all over France for its public auctions Accommodation is provided for 276 stalls, rented at 14 cents a day per square etables and cheese, while other stalls for meat and fish are rented at 33 cents per squareauctions, held at the rear of the hall, are sold iaetables There is a rule that all supplies must come from outside Lyons, so that local store men cannot there dispose of surplus stocks, but dealers in other French cities often thus relieve themselves when overloaded These auctions not only enable local dealers to distribute supplies at cheap rates to the small stores all over the city, but wide awake housewives can frequently tell just what the stores gave wholesale for the produce offered to thees
The auctioneers are given athemselves to pay to the city a sum equal to two per cent on the total annual sales The minimum is fixed at 1,930 for one stand or 5,650 for four stands, to be paid to the municipal treasury Two per cent is added to the purchase price of every payment made by buyers at auction, and if this does not amount to 1,930 per stand for the year, the auctioneer has to ely by these sales, banding together to buy wholesale and then dividing their purchases