PARIS has one of the most skilfully organized 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 retail markets to a limited extent. Retail traders are
being decreased 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 covered markets
or marches de quartier, are not progressing in 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 home market supplies; (2) the
number of perambulating produce salesmen, who sell from carts in the
street at low rates, having neither store rent nor market tolls to pay,
and (3) the growth of co-operative societies.
A complicated and severe code of regulations governs the markets.
Commission salesmen at the Halles Centrales must be French citizens of
unblemished record and must give 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 themselves the distant growers have
confidence in the market methods.
In the retail markets each dealer in fresh meat pays just under $6.00 a
week in all, while dealers in salted meats, fish, game and vegetables
pay a much lower rate. All, however, in the covered markets pay three
taxes--one for the right to occupy a stand, one for the cleaning and
arranging of the markets, and one for the maintenance of guardians and
officials. In the open markets the stands are rented by the day, week,
or year, the rate for the day ranging from ten to thirty cents,
according to space. Several of these local markets have charters dating
back to pre-revolution days, that cannot now be annulled.
It would be difficult to devise a more thorough system of inspection.
An average year's seizures include half a million pounds of meat,
17,000 pounds of fruit and vegetables and half a million pounds of salt
water fish.
Thus the Paris market arrangements provide an admirable central
clearing house, 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 marches de quartier, to the great convenience of
local consumers. Moreover the producer is safeguarded, for on his
supplies a small fixed percentage only can be charged by the salesman,
and the current market prices are made public by agents 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