CONSUMES PREFERENCES IN PURCHASE OF MEAT 27 
another, the dealer loses customers. Under this system of distri- 
butioD the meat dealer should find it advisable to develop confidence 
in his reliability and in his knowledge of the meat business. It was 
thus not surprising to find that housewives were interested in adver- 
tising which would build up good will for the dealer. Creation of 
good will and effortsf'" to sell the store itself " to the housewife by 
building on a foundation of well-directed institutional advertising 
should be of the greatest value to the meat dealer who wishes his 
business to show progress. 
Question 15. — How do you purchase meat? (Tables 34 and 35.) 
According to the housewives of the American white group who 
answered this question, the housewife usually purchased the meat for 
the household, more than half of the number stating that ih.ej did 
so personally. An additional one-fourth of the number purchased by 
telephone order. In 9 per cent of the households the husband did 
the meat buying, in 4.5 per cent of the homes the children were sent 
to the store to buy meat, in 1.1 per cent the servants bought the 
supply of meat. 
The use of these methods of purchase varied with the classes. In 
the American white group, the range for personal purchase of the 
meat used in their households was between 68.8 per cent for the poor 
and 37.1 per cent for the wealthy-class housewives. An even greater 
variation was shown in the replies relating to the use of the telephone 
by the housewife in purchasing meat. The class making the least 
use of the telephone was the poor class, in which 4.4 per cent of the 
housewives replying to the question stated that they used this method. 
Sixteen per cent of the housewives of the middle-class group, 34.1 
per cent of those of the well-to-do class, and 52.7 per cent of those 
of the wealthy class used the telephone in purchasing meat. 
Conditions were somewhat the reverse in the matter of meat pur- 
chasing by the husband or by the children of the family. The wealthy 
class was the only one of the classes of the American white group 
which purchased meat to any extent through servants. 
In the colored group the percentage of housewives personally buy- 
ing meat was a little larger than in the American white group, being 
over 70 per cent in both classes of the group. Use of the telephone 
was almost negligible by both classes, only 1 per cent of the housewives 
Eurchasing by this method. It was somewhat more usual for the 
usbands to purchase meat in the colored classes than in the poor and 
middle classes of the American white group. 
In the foreign group also the relative number of housewives who 
purchased meat personally was higher than that indicated for the 
American white group. In the English, Finnish, German, Italian, 
Jewish, and Polish groups, 70 per cent or more of the housewives of 
each of these groups stated that they purchased meat personally. 
Use of the telephone was especially important among the French, 
Russian, and Scandinavian groups. Meat buying was done by hus- 
bands in 11.7 per cent of the households of the Italian group and in 
22.8 per cent of those of the Scandinavian group. In the German 
and Russian groups, children were sent to purchase meat more fre- 
quently than in any other of the foreign groups, the colored, or the 
American white classes. Twelve per cent of the French housewives 
