At the request of the National Retail Dry Goods Association the Harvard Bureau of Business Research is continuing its analysis of department store operating costs to cover the year 1929. To aid in this study department and specialty stores throughout the United States have been asked to submit their operating figures for the past year.

When the survey is completed, possibly early in May, each firm submitting figures will receive a complimentary copy of the bulletin presenting the results of the study, together with a confidential report of the firm's own operating figures expressed as percentages of net sales. It costs the firm nothing to join in this research inasmuch as the expense of the study is being defrayed by the National Retail Dry Goods Association. All figures received at the Bureau are held in strict confidence and the names of firms assisting in this research will never be revealed.

The survey will contribute to the growing fund of information upon business costs available for teaching in the Business School and for references of business men. The tendency for operating costs to rise during the past few years gives additional importance to a study of department store retailing in 1929.