Audit of Retail Store Operations 



One part of the retailer phase of the A. C. Nielsen Company 

 survey was an audit of operations of retail food stores distributing 

 shrimp products. This audit was based on data furnished by a national 

 panel of 20 fish and shellfish stores and 261 other retail food 

 stores of the types which ordinarily woiild be expected to carry fish 

 and shellfish products (classified in United States Census publications 

 as grocery stores handling fresh meat, grocery stores not handling fresh 

 meat, delicatessen stores, and country general stores). The stores were 

 selected from a probability sample of 1,600 stores used by the A. C. 

 Nielsen Company in the com.putatlon of Its 'food index'. V 



The audit covered the 2-inonth period of August and September 

 1955. Statistics collected in the course of the field investigation 

 covered the extent of distribution, volume of sales, inventories, euid 

 prices for the principal types of shrimp products. In each instance, 

 the data were expanded to obtain totals for all retail food outlets in 

 the nation. 



Extent of Distribution 



At the time of the survey, the shrimp product most widely 

 distributed in retail stores was canned shrimp. On the basis of the 

 sample data it was estimated that 63 percent of the total number of 

 grocery, delicatessen, fish and shellfish, and country general stores 2/ 

 handled the canned product at some time during the months of Avigust- 

 September 19?5. A much smaller proportion of stores handled fish- 

 counter sales of fresh and bulk-frozen shrimp (6 percent) and packaged 

 frozen shrimp products (frozen headless — 30 percent, frozen uncooked 

 breaded — 33 percent, and frozen cooked breaded— 23 percent). 



4/ For a discussion of this index as well as of the methods employed by 

 the A. C. Nielsen Company in its retail store audit procedure see A Brief 

 Description of Nielsen Food Index and Nielsen Drug Index . Nielsen Compeiny 

 publication, 1955 • 



5/ The percentages in this section may be applied to 19^8 Census figures. 

 The I9U8 Census of Retail Business listed a total of 4l2,931 grocery stores 

 (including both stores handling fresh meat and stores not handling fresh 

 meat), delicatessen stores, fish and seafood stores, and country general 

 stores. Preliminary results of the 195^ Census indicate that the number 

 of these stores has decreased since 1948. This is explained partially 

 by the tendency toward fewer and larger stores, partially by a change in 

 the Census cut-off •v^ich eliminated stores handling a volume from $500 

 to $2,500 annually formerly included in compilations. 



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