CONSUMER PREFERENCES IN PURCHASE OF MEAT 21 
percentage composition by grades of the beef animals received on 
the Chicago market during the year 1924. Grading of these animals 
according to United States grades indicated that the proportions in 
which the various grades occurred were about as follows: 
Per cent 
Prime 0. 5 
Choice 8. 5 
Good 23. 
Medium 46. 
Common 18. 5 
Cutter and canner 3. 5 
100.0 
Direct comparison of these grades with the qualities indicated by 
the housewives was not possible, because of the lack of knowledge 
of grades on the part of the housewives; but there was some basis 
of comparison. Of the housewives of the American white group, 48.5 
per cent answered that their dealers carried best and very good qual- 
ities of meat. If the Chicago receipts may be regarded as fairly 
typical of the animals marketed through the country, this housewife 
opinion was manifestly wrong, since the two highest grades, prime and 
choice, together constituted only 9 per cent of the total Chicago 
receipts. 
Lack of knowledge of quality in meat was further demonstrated 
by housewives of the colored and foreign groups in much the same 
manner as that shown by the American white group. 
The necessity for standard grades of meat and for sale by grade 
was apparent from the results of this question. Means should be at 
hand whereby housewives may learn to buy meat by grade and to 
know whether they are receiving the grade for which they have asked. 
Question 12. — (g) How long have you bought meat from your present dealer? 
( Tables 24 and 25.) 
The tendency of the well-to-do and wealthy classes of the Amer- 
ican white group to trade a greater length of time with one dealer 
was brought out by the replies to this question. In the poor class, 
19.4 per cent of the housewives answering the question stated that 
they had traded with their present dealers over 5 years (5 to 10 years 
and over 1 years percentages combined) . Similar figures for the mid- 
dle, well-to-do, and wealthy classes were 19.8, 23.0, and 35.3. When 
the percentages for the various periods two years and under were 
combined, it was found that 57.6 per cent of the poor-class house- 
wives had traded with their present dealers for two years or less. 
Fifty-six per cent of the housewives of the middle class, 46.1 per cent 
of those of the well-to-do' class, and 32 per cent of the wealthy-class 
housewives stated that they had traded with their meat dealers for 
a period not to exceed two years. 
In the colored group, 51.6 per cent of the housewives of the poor 
class and 47.8 per cent of the housewives of the middle class replied 
that they had not traded with their present dealers over two years. 
In the foreign groups the percentages of the total number of house- 
wives in each group replying that they had traded with their dealers 
two years or less w T ere as follows: English, 45.4 per cent; Finnish, 
27.9 per cent; French, 38 per cent; German, 32.1 per cent; Italian, 
42.2 per cent; Jewish, 54 per cent; Polish, 38.8 per cent; Russian, 
55.1 per cent; Scandinavian, 49.3 per cent. The foreign groups in 
