PRICES AND QUALITY OF CREAMERY BUTTER. 15 
EFFECT OF PACKAGING UNDER ESTABLISHED BRANDS. 
As a resuit of the studies in the retail markets of larger cities in 
this country, it was found that most retailers, as well as consumers 
generally, do not buy butter on the basis of grades‘ as determined by 
official inspectors or expert judges of butter. Being usually unskilled 
judges of quality, they are guided largely by their experience with 
‘ various stencil numbers or advertised brands or trade-marks. As a 
result of this practice, many creamery men whose butter is not sold 
under a distinctive trade-mark have come to believe that consumers 
pay for the brand and not the quality of goods. In Table 4 the 
average quality scores and retail prices of the different lots of bulk 
and trade-marked butter found in retail stores are compared. 
TABLE 4.—Comparison of quality (average score) and average retail price of 
branded and unbranded butter. 
[Retail prices expressed in margins between prices paid and local quotations for Extras.] 
Branded lots. Unbranded lots. 
Market. | 
Number | Average | Price | Number|} Average | Price 
oilots. :| score. margin. | of lots. score. margin. 
Cents. Cents. 
INOW? SEO NICE Ges AG eHaee ec Base Sees an oeeree 60 91.2 St 122 89. 8 8. 83 
nila el phrase swe sen oc cee sce serenieere ets 80 90. 8 11.6 21 90. 7 9. 02 
@hicsrvoss-s2s- 2p Pees SS Sheets 161 89. 6 6.1 68 88. 7 4.7 
St. Paul and Minneapolis................. 230 89.3 5. 18 37 | 89. 7 5. 06 
Tt will be noted in this table that no definite relation appears to 
exist between quality and retail prices. Except for New York and 
Philadelphia, where many consumers are exceptionally discriminative 
or appreciative of good quality, there seems to be a tendency for con- 
sumers to pay more for trade-marked goods put in print packages 
than for unbranded “ bulk” goods, regardless of any fine differences 
in quality. The average prices given in the table for “print” or 
trade-marked butter for New York and Philadelphia include a lim- 
ited number of “special brands” made from either whole milk or . 
cream of an exceptionally high quality. Such “special brands” are 
not marketed by the usual system of distribution employed by the 
majority of country creameries, but generally are sold “direct from 
factory to retailer” or through the manufacturer’s own retail stores 
or delivery wagons. The prices obtained for butter sold under these 
brands, as shown by Table 3, ranged from 8 to 12 cents higher than 
those of Extras marketed through the usual system of distribution 
or local creamery butter. 
1 For a description of commercial practices in grading butter, see U. S. Department of 
Agriculture Bulletin 456, ‘‘ Marketing Creamery Butter,’ by Potts, R. C., and Meyer, 
lebeaae 
