plants had less than 10 pounds on hand 

 while 37 percent of the total volume of 

 canned shellfish was used by lh percent 

 who had a hundred or more pounds in 

 inventory. 



CONDITIONS OF PURCHASE 



A secondary wholesaler is the most 

 important source for fish and shellfish, 

 particularly among larger plants. Ninety 

 percent of firms with one thousand or more 

 employees named this type of supplier com- 

 pared with three out of four medium-sized 

 plants and only 66 percent of the small 

 plants. Conversely, relatively more men- 

 tion was made of retail stores by the 

 smaller concerns, i. e., 16 percent of the 

 companies with 2^0-h99 employees and 12 

 percent of the middle-sized plants desig- 

 nated retail sources. 



Primary wholesalers, processors and 

 canners were also cited as sources for 

 those products. Primary wholesalers were 

 used by 9 percent of the small plants, 

 7 percent of the large, and only U percent 

 of the medium-sized plants. 



The majority of plants bought all 

 their fresh or frozen fish products from a 

 single firm. Where more than one supplier 

 was patronized, it was more likely to be a 

 large plant than a small one, and the 

 chances were greater that it was located 

 in the South or north-central region. 



The average plant made four purchases 

 of fresh or frozen fish during the survey 

 period. In general, where the use of fish 

 was highest, the number of purchases during 

 the k weeks tended to be greatest. There 

 was one exception to this rule — the West, 

 which had the largest proportion of plants 

 that used fresh or frozen fish, also had 

 the highest percentage of companies making 

 fewer than four purchases of that commodity 

 during the survey period. 



Personal inspection was the most fre- 

 quent buying method for fresh fish and 

 shellfish; 35 percent mentioned this 

 practice. One in five plants bought on 

 the basis of brand names. 



With both frozen and canned fish the 

 brand name was the most important consid- 

 eration. Almost half the buyers mentioned 

 this factor in connection with frozen fish 



and more than 6 out of 10 pointed to it as 

 a determining element in canned fish 

 purchases. About one in four buyers of 

 frozen fishery products made a personal 

 inspection. 



PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS 



Six of the principal fish and shell- 

 fish products were selected for more 

 detailed analysis. For those six, the 

 average amounts usually bought by plants 

 were as follows: 



Cod 



The size of purchase for cod ranged 

 from less than 10 pounds to more than 

 160 pounds. All of the really sizeable 

 purchases (80 pounds or more) were made 

 by companies with 500 or more workers. 

 Approximately half of the total used 

 was accounted for by plants that usually 

 bought 60 pounds or more at a time. 

 Altogether, 3h percent of the large 

 plants purchased in quantities of this 

 magnitude, as contrasted with less than 

 20 percent of the small and medium-sized 

 plants. 



In four weeks, almost 88,000 pounds 

 of cod (10 percent of the total volume of 

 fish and shellfish) were used by manu- 

 facturing-plant food facilities in the 

 United States, a third of the trans- 

 actions, and almost half the volume was 

 at or within a few cents of the average 

 price of 3U cents a pound. Eighty-five 

 percent of the transactions were within 

 a range of 10 cents below or 10 cents 

 above the average. 



In all sections of the country, 

 steaks and fillets were bought by more 

 plants than was whole or dressed cod. 



