CONSUMER PREFERENCES IN PURCHASE OF MEAT 29 
of those in Fargo stated that they made up their minds before they 
went to the store, while in Pittsburgh only 54.3 per cent of the house- 
wives said that they had made up their minds regarding the kind of 
meat they wished to purchase before they went to market. 
Question 16. — (b) When you purchase meat, is your mind made up to buy boiling 
meat, roast, fry, etc., before you go to the store? (Tables 
38 and 39.) 
This question though not intended as a check on the replies to 16 
(a) might very well serve as such. The distribution of the replies 
of the various groups and classes agree very well with the answers 
received to the previous question. This was to be expected, since 
the housewife who had made up her mind to buy beef in all proba- 
bility had also gone so far as to decide on the particular cut she w T as 
to buy. 
Of the 2,869 housewives replying to this question, 75 per cent 
stated that when they purchased meat then* minds were made up 
regarding the cut that they wished to buy before they went to the 
store. Housewives answering that their minds were only partly 
made up constituted 12.9 per cent of the total and those answering 
"No" were 12.1 per cent of the group. There was a tendency for 
the relative number of those stating that they had made up their 
minds before going to the store to increase as the standard of living 
of the groups became better. 
In the colored group there was a shift in the proportionate number 
of replies indicating that decision had been only partly or not at all 
made before the housewife went to market. These two replies totaled 
over 40 per cent in each of the classes of the colored group and slightly 
less than 30 per cent in the American white group. 
In the foreign groups, the percentage of the housewives in each 
group replying that they had made up their minds as to the kind of 
meat they wished to purchase before they went to the store was 
similiar to the 75 per cent average for the American white group, 
with the exceptions of the French, Italian, and Jewish groups, in 
which the corresponding percentages were 56, 49.3, and 38.5. 
Some variations were found between the cities when comparisons 
were made on the basis of the combined replies of the middle and 
well-to-do classes. (Table 39.) It was found that the percentage in 
Washington was 93, in Jacksonville 85.8 per cent, in Fargo 83.6 per 
cent, and in Birmingham 82 per cent, all of which were materially 
greater than the average for the 16 cities. The New Orleans group of 
housewives indicated the lowest percentage of these cities, as only 59 
per cent of the housewives stated that they had made up their minds 
in regard to the kind of meat to be purchased before they went to 
the store. 
Question 16. — (c) When you purchase meat, do you buy at specially advertised 
prices? (Tables 40 and 41.) 
More than three-fourths of the housewives of the American white 
group who replied to this question stated that they never bought 
meat at specially advertised prices, but there was about an 18 per 
cent difference between the percentage of the housewives of the Amer- 
ican poor class replying " Never " to the question and the percentage 
of the wealthy class housewives who stated that they did not buy at 
specially advertised prices. 
