Having let them have their say, Ernest began asking questions right and left. He began with Mr. Owen.
“You started a branch store here in Berkeley about six months ago?”
“Yes,” Mr. Owen answered.
“And since then I’ve noticed that three little corner groceries have gone out of business. Was your branch store the cause of it?”
Mr. Owen affirmed with a complacent smile. “They had no chance against us.”
“Why not?”
“We had greater capital. With a large business there is always less waste and greater efficiency.”
“And your branch store absorbed the profits of the three small ones. I see. But tell me, what became of the owners of the three stores?”
“One is driving a delivery wagon for us. I don’t know what happened to the other two.”
Ernest turned abruptly on Mr. Kowalt.
“You sell a great deal at cut-rates.54 What have become of the owners of the small drug stores that you forced to the wall?”
“One of them, Mr. Haasfurther, has charge now of our prescription department,” was the answer.
“And you absorbed the profits they had been making?”
“Surely. That is what we are in business for.”