§ 779.364 May qualify as exempt 13(a)(2) or 13(a)(4) establishments.

(a) An establishment engaged in providing frozen-food locker service to farmers and other private individuals and rendering services thereto may qualify as an exempt retail or service establishment under section 13(a)(2) of the Act if it meets all the requirements of that exemption. Similarly, a frozen-food locker plant which also engages in slaughtering and dressing livestock or poultry for sale may qualify as an exempt establishment under section 13(a)(4) of the Act if it meets all the requirements of that exemption.

(b) Activities of frozen-food locker plants. Frozen-food locker plants provide locker service for the cold storage of frozen meats, fruits, and vegetables and engage in incidental activities such as the cutting of meat, cleaning, packaging or wrapping and quick freezing, of meats, fruits, or vegetables for such locker service. In such establishments lockers are rented principally to farmers and other private individuals for the purpose of storage by them of such goods for their own personal or family use. Storage space and related services may also be provided for business or commercial use such as to hotels, stores or restaurants, or to farmers or other customers who use it to store meat and other goods for future sale. Such locker plants may also engage in such activities as the custom slaughtering and dressing of livestock or poultry and the curing, smoking, or other processing of meat owned by farmers and other private individuals for storage by those customers either in their home freezers or in locker plants for the customers' personal or family use. The custom slaughtering or processing activities of such locker establishments may be performed on the premises of the establishments or at some location away from the establishment.

(c) Classification of sales. In determining whether, under the 13(a)(2) exemption, 75 percent of the establishment's sales are not for resale and are recognized as retail sales in the industry, the receipts from the locker service and the incidental activities mentioned in the first sentence of this section and from the slaughtering, dressing, or other processing of livestock or poultry performed for farmers and other private individuals for their own use, but not where the goods are to be sold to others by the customer, will be counted as receipts from sales of services recognized as retail in the industry. Receipts from commercial storage and activities incidental thereto and from the sale of hides, offal or other byproducts will be counted as receipts from sales of goods or services made for resale or which are not recognized as retail sales of goods or services in the industry.

(d) Some locker plant establishments also include a meat market of the type which slaughters its own livestock or poultry (as distinguished from the slaughtering performed as a service to customers on the customers' own livestock) and processes such meat for sale by it to the general public. In performing such operations as the slaughtering, curing, and smoking of meat and the rendering of fats for sale, the establishment is making or processing goods that it sells and is not performing retail services for its customers. Employees engaged in these activities in such an establishment, therefore, are not exempt under section 13(a)(2) but may be exempt if the establishment meets the tests of a combination 13(a)(2)–13(a)(4) exemption in accordance with the principles stated in § 779.343. As a general rule, such a meat market which slaughters its own livestock and sells its meat to the general public is a type of establishment which may be recognized as a retail establishment in the industry within the meaning of the 13(a)(4) exemption. Whether a particular establishment, however, is so recognized depends upon the facts of the case. It should be noted that where such slaughtering, curing or smoking is, for any reason, performed away from the premises of the establishment where the meat is sold, the employees engaged in such activities are not employees employed by a retail establishment which “makes or processes at the retail establishment the goods that it sells” within the meaning of the 13(a)(4) exemption and cannot, therefore, be exempt under that section.