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BULLETIN 1443, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
bination type of market. Some tendency was noted for housewives 
of the wealthy class to patronize straight meat markets and stalls 
in public markets to a larger extent than housewives of the other 
groups. 
In the colored group there was found a larger percentage of house- 
wives who patronized stalls in public markets than was the case in 
the American white group. This was explainable by the fact that in 
at least two of the four cities from which the questionnaires from 
colored persons were secured, the public market was a very important 
factor in retail meat distribution. This situation was not general in 
all 16 cities where the American white questionnaires were secured, so 
so that the tendency toward the public market noted in the colored 
group may be properly attributed to the fact that public markets 
were more available to the colored group than to the American white 
group as a whole. (Table 19.) 
In the foreign groups, the straight market was the type most often 
patronized. Eight of the 9 foreign groups — English, Finnish, French, 
German, Italian, Jewish, Russian, and Scandinavian — patronized the 
straight meat market to the largest extent. Characteristics of nation- 
ality, religion, and local meat distributing methods were all combined 
to produce the observed results. For example, local restrictions in 
the methods of distribution have resulted in the distribution of meat 
in New Orleans taking place largely through straight meat markets 
and public markets. The high percentages noted for the French 
group may be attributed to these factors, since the 49 housewives of 
this class interviewed were located in New Orleans. In the Jewish 
group religious custom was largely responsible for 77.4 per cent of 
the housewives stating that they traded at straight meat markets. 
The extent to which the various types of markets were patronized 
by the middle and well-to-do classes of the American white group in 
the 16 cities is shown in Table 19. Over 50 per cent of the house- 
wives of these classes in Birmingham, Denver, Grand Forks, Lincoln, 
New Haven, Oklahoma City, San Francisco, and Washington traded 
at the unit combination grocery and meat store. In Binghamton, 
Fargo, Jacksonville, and Minneapolis over 50 per cent of the house- 
wives of these two classes purchased meat at unit straight meat 
markets. In Baltimore, New Orleans, and Washington the stalls in 
gublic markets were patronized to a considerable extent, while in 
Birmingham, Jacksonville, and Philadelphia the store of the combin- 
ation meat and grocery chain was patronized by between 11 and 16 
per cent of the housewives of the middle and well-to-do classes of the 
American white group. 
Question 12. — (6) How many blocks is your meat dealer's store from you? 
(Table 20.) 
This question was directed toward the determination of the extent 
to which housewives patronized stores at varying distances from their 
homes. The tendency to get out of the immediate neighborhood in 
which the household lives might well indicate the effort of searching 
out dealers. The near-by dealer has the advantage of location, but 
this factor from the standpoint of the consumer is not the most 
important in the choice of a meat shop. 
A definite disposition to trade with the dealers near-by was indi- 
cated in the replies of the poor and middle classes in the American 
