32 
BULLETIN 1443, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
was thus indicated a range between these two percentages of almost 
40 per cent. 
The rank of the 16 cities in order of the percentage of housewives 
replying that they were influenced by price was as follows: Fargo, 
Grand Forks, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, Lincoln, Bing- 
hamton, Oklahoma City, Denver, Minneapolis, Birmingham, Balti- 
more, San Francisco, New Haven, Jacksonville, and New Orleans. 
Question 16. — (g) When you purchase meat, do you shop between stores? 
(Tables 48 and 49.) 
A total of 2,860 housewives of the American white group replied 
to this question. Of this number, 56.9 per cent stated that they 
never shopped between stores in purchasing meat, 31.2 per cent said 
that they shopped between stores sometimes and 11.9 per cent said 
that they shopped much between stores in buying meat. 
The poor, middle, and well-to-do classes of this group showed 
little variation in the distribution of their answers to this question 
among the three classifications, — "None," "Some," and "Much." 
In the wealthy group, however, the percentage of total replies in- 
dicative of no shopping among stores in the purchasing of meat was 
70.6, which was materially larger than the 51.4 per cent of the poor 
class, the 51.3 per cent of the middle class, and the 57.3 per cent of the 
well-to-do class. 
In the colored group the relative numbers of housewives who 
shopped between stores were larger in both the poor and middle 
classes than in the same classes of the American white group. 
When the foreign groups were arranged in order, the variation of 
the relative numbers of housewives replying that they did some or 
much shopping between stores in purchasing meat, the order was: 
Italian, English, Polish, Jewish, German, Scandinavan, Russian, 
Finnish, and French. 
In Table 49, the variations among the cities were rather wide, the 
percentage of the total number of housewives replying that they did 
not shop among stores ranging from 84.7 in Washington to 37.9 in Pitts- 
burgh. The order of the cities was as follows: Washington, Grand 
Forks, Jacksonville, New Haven, Baltimore, Binghamton, San Fran- 
cisco, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Fargo, Minneapolis, Denver, Okla- 
homa City, Lincoln, Birmingham, and Pittsburgh. 
Question 16. — (h) When you purchase meat, do vou buy by pound or portion? 
(Tables 50 and 51.) 
A total of 566 housewives of the poor, middle, and well-to-do classes 
of the American white group in Baltimore, Binghamton, Jackson- 
ville, and New Haven replied to this question. Of these housewives, 
83 per cent stated that they purchased b}^ the pound and the remain- 
ing 17 per cent said that they bought meat by the portion. As here 
used "portion" implies the designation of a quantity by means other 
than weight, that is, a cut of steak, or a two-rib roast, as distinguished 
from requests for definite quantities of the same cuts by weight. 
The differences among the classes seemed to be of importance, 92.3 
per cent of the housewives of the poor class, 83.7 per cent of the 
middle class, 73.9 per cent of the well-to-do, saying that they pur- 
chased by the pound. 
