A bulletin embodying the results of research into the operation of drug store chains, the third and last of a series of chain store reports, will be published within a few weeks by the Bureau of Business Research of the Harvard Business School. The two preceding bulletins revealed that grocery chains could undersell independent competitors by about ten per cent but that in the field of chain shoe stores no great difference was apparent.

Research into business conditions and problems has been going on for about twenty years at the Business School and the current bulletin represents the result of the eighty-sixth study in this field. At first the investigators were concerned chiefly with the operation of independent retail stores and wholesale firms, but in recent years the growth of chain stores has made it necessary to broaden the scope of the research.

The primary aim in conducting research is to increase the amount of material directly available for teaching at the School. By issuing bulletins containing the data collected and the conclusions drawn from it, other agencies and schools are also enabled to benefit from the investigations, and the material is presented in a form readily unable by business men in analyzing the efficiency of their own organizations.