20 BULLETIN 682, U, S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



" makes " or " brands," but there seems to be a tendency among 

 groceries and delicatessen stores to give preference to well-known, 

 and widely advertised brands. This is shown by the proportion of 

 common creamery butter which is sold under advertised brands. 

 The greatest portion of " special brand " butter was sold through 

 high-class grocery stores, central-market stands, dairy stores, and 

 wagon retailers. The largest sales of oleomargarine were made by 

 certain retail fruit stores in Chicago. 



From the records of retail grocery stores and wagon dealers, who 

 sold largely " on credit " to over 20,000 families, it was possible to 

 compare the weekly butter purchases of various classes of trade, in- 

 cluding the poorest and the most well to do. The average weekly 

 consumption per family for the different classes of trade was as fol- 

 lows: Poor class, 1.48 pounds; middle class, 1.97 pounds; well-to-do 

 class, 1.60 pounds. The average weekly purchases of the middle- 

 class customers of New York were somewhat larger than those of 

 the other cities in which these studies were conducted. It is im- 

 portant to note that these figures were based on the current sales 

 during the winter season, when butter prices are the highest of the 

 year. There was evidence to show that during the season of decreased 

 prices many families buy butter which do not use it in winter, and- 

 that many families which use butter the year around increase their 

 average weekly purchases during the season of reduced prices. 



The average prices of common creamery butter sold in retail 

 stores that catered mainly to the poorer classes of laboring people 

 were generally higher than the prices charged by stores whose 

 customers consisted mainly of the better paid class of workingmen, 

 clerks, and professional people. This may be explained, in part at 

 least, by the fact that the stores serving the poorer classes of work- 

 ing people were mainly of the delicatessen or the small corner 

 grocery type, which were usually unable to buy as cheaply as those 

 retailers who purchased their supplies in comparatively large 

 quantities. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



There are considerable differences in the prices of creamery butter 

 in different cities of the United States, but the wholesale prices in all 

 cities follow rather closelj^ the current wholesale prices at which the 

 surplus production of the creameries of the Middle West is sold on 

 the larger wholesale markets. Differences in distance from the 

 sources of supply to the various markets, and hence in transporta- 

 tion costs, account for most of the wholesale price variations between 

 different cities. There are variations in prices paid by different mer- 

 chants in various cities, however, which find their explanation in the 

 differences in consumers' tastes and buying powers. 



