those in home toter "bags; however, the fruit decayed more in the oveivrapped 

 tray. This test indicated that the two packages were about equal in salability 

 rating for grapes (appendix, tables 10, 11, and 15 ). 



Packages for Pears 



Sales differences between displays of pears in sleevewrapped and overwrap- 

 ped packages were negligible, as shown in the tabulation below. Statistical 

 tests showed that in repeated tests results may favor either of the two pack- 

 ages about an equal number of times. 



Type of package 



Average weekly sales per store 1/ 





: Packages 2/ 

 : 3/ 358 

 3/ 350 





l/ Adjusted for differences in number of customers patronizing stores 

 during the test. 



2/ Each package contained 6 pears of same size. 



3/ Difference in sales not statistically significant. 



Results of the quality control test showed that when pears were displayed 

 on refrigerated cases they remained in good condition and were salable in both 

 types of package for 7 days (appendix, table 15). A higher percentage of pears 

 packed in the sleevewrapped trays showed scald, but the percentage of pears 

 affected by scald was not sufficient to affect materially the salability rating 

 of pears in either package (appendix, fig. 3)« 



When displayed on the nonrefrigerated case, pears packaged in the sleeve- 

 wrapped trays required sorting and repacking after only k days and were prac- 

 tically unsalable after 7 days. On the other hand, pears packaged in overwrapped 

 trays remained salable for 7 days before it was necessary to sort and repack. 

 Approximately 75 percent of the pears packaged in the sleevewrapped trays and 

 ko percent of those packed in overwrapped trays were affected by scald (appendix, 

 table 12). 



Labor and materials for the cellophane overwrapped 6-pear tray cost k.yj 

 cents, compared to 3*60 cents for the sleevewrapped tray (appendix, table 8). 



Thus, since the two types of package are equal in sales effectiveness it 

 would be advantageous to retailers to use the sleevewrapped trays when pears 

 are displayed on refrigerated cases and are sold within 7 days. If nonrefrig- 

 erated cases are used for displays and pears are not sold within k days, the 

 greater losses from deterioration of the fruit packaged in sleevewrapped trays 

 will be more than the savings in labor and material cost. 



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