"Only five companies have ever bought sufficient quantities of respondent's salt to obtain the $1.35 per case price. These companies could buy in such quantities because they operate large chains of retail stores in various parts of the country. As a result of this low price these five companies have been able to sell Blue Label salt at retail cheaper than wholesale purchasers from respondent could reasonably sell the same brand of salt to independently operated retail stores, many of whom competed with the local outlets of the five chain stores."
"Respondent's basic contention, which it argues this case hinges upon, is that its 'standard quantity discounts, available to all on equal terms, as contrasted, for example, to hidden or special rebated, allowances, prices or discounts, are not discriminatory within the meaning of the Robinson-Patman Act.' Theoretically, these discounts are not equally available to all, but functionally they are not. For as the record indicates (if reference to it on this point were necessary) no single independent retail grocery store, and probably no single wholesaler, bought as many as 50,000 cases or as much as $50,000 worth of table salt in one year."