Recent Cons-umer Sales Ti-ends 



To obtain some indication of recent trends in consumer sales of 

 shrimp products, the retailers were requested to compare, in an approxi- 

 mate fashion, 195^ to 1953 sales. While almost one-third of the retailers 

 expressed an opinion that they did substajitially the same amount of 

 business in the 2 years, 39 percent thought they did better in 195^ 

 than in 1953 as against 2k percent who thought they had fared worse; a 

 small proportion of the retailers interviewed, i.e., U percent, were un- 

 able to come to a definite conclusion. 



Better packaging of products and an increase in demand were the 

 principal reasons given for the pickup in sales in 195^ wherever an improve- 

 ment over the preceding year was noted. The reasons for improvement cited 

 were: 



New shrimp products, such as'. 



Breaded shrimp 



Peeled Shrimp 



Shrimp creole 

 Better packaging 

 Better refrigeration in storage 

 Better refrigeration in transit 

 Improved handling 

 More variety 

 Improved distribution 

 Lower prices 

 Increased demand 

 Sale of fresh cleaned shrimp 

 Large open top display 

 Improved display 

 Adverti sing 



For the purpose of determining the relative importance of 

 different shrimp and competitive fish and shellfish products in the 

 retail market, the retailers were asked to rank the following 7 

 products by volume of sales in their stores: (l) fresh shrimp, 

 (2) packaged frozen headless shrimp, (3) frozen cooked breaded shrimp, 

 {h) frozen uncooked breaded shrimp, (5) frozen lobsters and lobster 

 tails, (6) frozen fish sticks, and (7) frozen scallops. The tabulation 

 of rankings reveals that frozen fish sticks were listed as best-seller 

 by as many as 37 percent of the retailers. Following next, but sub- 

 stantially behind the leader, were packaged frozen headless shrimp, fresh 

 shrimp, and the other frozen shrimp products, (see table VI-10) 



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