hS percent versus 30 percent. In Detroit 

 the reverse was true, 30 percent versus ii3 

 percent. 



Buying Habits 



Ln overwhelming majority of the tuna 

 users buy more than one can of tuna at a 

 time. Impulse buying is lovj in all three 

 cities. More than h out of 5 of the tuna 

 users in all three cities indicated that 

 they planned to buy tuna before they went 

 to the store. In response to an open 

 ouestion, those who had made an impulse 

 purchase the last time they bouijht tuna 

 gave as their main reasons "low price, on 

 sale" and "just happened to notice it." 



Serving Habits 



the four weeks prior to the interviews) 

 only 25 percent in Boston, 28 percent in 

 Birmingham, and 37 percent in Detroit said 

 tuna was served in ttieir horr^s when they 

 were children, 



/rhe replies of consumers to 

 an open ouestion and their 

 responses to the use of the 

 probing technique revealed the 

 relative L".portance of price 

 reductions as a motive for the 

 more frequent use of canned 

 tuna^ 



almost one -fifth of the tuna users in 

 Binrdnghan said a lower price vjould induce 

 them to serve tuna more often. Only about 

 one -eighth of the users in Boston and 



Tuna is served in both hot and cold 

 forms by form than 6 out of 10 of the tuna 

 users in all three cities . It is served 

 only in the cold form by 39 percent in 

 Birminghajn, 33 percent In Boston, and 21; 

 percent in Detroit. Only 1 percent of the 

 tuna users in each of the three cities 

 served canned tuna in the hot form only. 

 According to the tabulation of responses 

 to an open question concerning serving 

 habits, users who serve tuna in the cold 

 form only did not serve it hot because they 

 only liked it In a salad or sandwiches. 



Children were fond of tuna in more 

 than one-half of the tuna-user families in 

 all three cities, .-.pparently mothers are 

 convinced that tuna is an excellent food 

 for children. Mothers reported serving 

 canned tuna to their children practically 

 as often as the latter asked for it. In 

 each of the three cities, 22 percent of the 

 tuna users with children could say defi- 

 nitely that their children v;ere served tuna 

 at school as part of the hot lunch program. 

 However, 68 percent in Birmingham, 19 per- 

 cent in Boston, and 38 percent in Detroit 

 did not know if their children were served 

 tuna at school. 



More than half of the tuna-user re- 

 spondents in all three cities said tuna 

 was served at home when they were children. 

 The proportion in this category was 7^ per- 

 cent in Boston compared to 56 percent in 

 Birmingham and 57 percent in Detroit. It 

 is significant that among tuna non-users 

 (those who had not served canned tuna in 



Percentage of 

 tuna users 



60 _ 



50 \- 



Uo 



30 - 



20 - 



10 - 



. 



Boston Detroit Birming- 

 ham 



FIGURE IV. —PERCENTAGE OF TUNA USERS 



WHO SAID THAT NOTHING WOULD INDUCE 



THEM TO USE MORE- TUNA 



