1905 The Hoffman House Bartender's Guide by Charles S. Mahoney

CONCERNING CASE GOODS During the past few years the public has been educated up to ask for case goods, and this has to a very large extent, injured the regular saloon trade, as can be readily shown. When a saloon man buys whiskeys at from $3.50 to $3.00 a gallon to sell for ten cents a drink, he has a chance to make a good profit. Against that is the price of case goods, which is from $10 to $14 a case; average that and make it $12 for the dozen bottles, that makes $5 a gallon. Average the drinks at 13^2 cents each and sec where your profit goes to, especially if you are serving min eral water on the side, as it is very likely you will do. In that event you can always figure that when you sell twelve bottles of liquor you are giving away twelve bottles of mineral water, and as a result your whiskey eosts you then from 70 to 7.5 cents a gallon Of course, at the present time, a saloon cannot be run without case goods, so it is syuggested that every first class establishment keep the leading brands on 103 more.