THE WORCESTER MILK MARKET 9 



Sales 



There were four kinds of fluid milk sales: 



1. Direct retail 



2. Wholesale 



3. Institutions 



4. Other dealers 



Many dealers handled all four types of sales while a few specialized in one. 

 Some smaller dealers sold only at retail, while one large dealer sold all of his milk 

 to stores at wholesale. One notable exception to the established channels of milk 

 distribution in Worcester was a grocery store that sold milk, buying directly from 

 a country plant in Vermont. 



In this study fluid sales are considered to be the quantities of milk for which 

 dealers paid producers the Class I price. This amount does not always truly 

 represent actual fluid sales for all dealers because of slight discrepancies, but 

 from the dealer's standpoint the quantity purchased at the Class I price is the 

 most important consideration. 



The percentage of Class I sales was remarkably high compared with other 

 markets. In November sales were 92 percent of the purchases and the low point 

 was reached in June, when they were 78 percent. The average daily Class I 

 sales were 148,899 pounds, or 86.3 percent of the total purchases. Springfield 

 and Boston, two markets in the same section of the country and hence with 

 rather similar conditions, sold only 75.3 percent and 46.7 per cent respectively 

 of their purchases (Figure 3 and Table 3). 



When Class I sales are so large a part of purchases, there is very little surplus 

 in the market. Surplus is one of the chief causes of discontent among the farmers, 

 for it is Class II milk and as such receives a much lower price than Class I. When 

 there is little surplus, the composite price to the farmer is higher; hence, there 

 is not so much dissatisfaction. 



Under the Milk Control Board regulations only rating- and use-plan dealers 

 are allowed to pay other than the Class I or fluid prices for any part of their milk 

 supply. For that reason, fluid sales were less than total purchases among only 

 those two types of dealers. For rating-plan dealers, fluid sales represented 88.3 

 percent of their total purchases, while for use-plan dealers, fluid sales represented 

 77.5 percent of the milk bought. The flat-plan dealers purchased the same amount 

 of milk thai they sold as Class I. 



Figure 4 shows the regularity of sales during the \eai . Fluctuations among 

 dealers by price plan groups was so slight that a constancy of fluid sales was 

 maintained throughout the market. The variation in surplus on the market 

 was due to seasonal production rather than sales. Unfortunately, natural pro- 

 duction of milk through the } ear does not remain so constant as the demand for 

 fluid milk. When the dealers are organized to handle the total production of all 

 their producers, they must find a market for part of the milk at other than fluid 

 use. This amount of surplus was greatest in May for rating-plan dealers, but for 

 use- and flat-plan dealers it was greatest in June, the month of peak production 

 on most farms. 



The three grades of milk sold most frequently in Worcester were pasteurized 

 Grade A, pasteurized Grade B, and an intermediate grade of higher fat content. 

 Of 676 full-time producers in the Worcester milkshed, only 22 were Grade A or 

 special milk producers, indicating that Grade A sales were relatively unimportant. 

 The major part of fluid sales was Grade B, but many dealers standardized part 

 of their product at a slightly higher fat test and sold it under some special name 

 at a premium of one cent per quart. Sales of this grade of milk comprised a 



