Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1885 — What Free Lunches Cost. [ARTICLE]

What Free Lunches Cost.

Millions in free lunches are spent every year in New York. No other city in the world can equal it. There are over 10,000 salohns in the city that run free-lunch counters. Some of them are at a great expense each day to supply a free lunch to their customers. The cheap saloons have reduced the matter to a science, and know almost exactly how many ounces they have consumed each day. The New York Mail has gathered some statistics as to the expenses of the various saloons and made an average of them. The following table will not fall far short of the exact daily expenses of the free lunches of all the saloons. The Sundays are left out in the estimate: 15 saloons at S2O a day $93,000 300 saloons at sl2 a day 1,126,800 1,500 saloons at $5 a day 1,347,500 3,000 saloons at $2 a day 1,878,000 6,000 saloons at $3 a day 6,631,000 10,850 saloons, annual expense $11,080,200