RETAIL MARKETING OF MEATS 39 
comparative difficulty of securing an adequate supply of fresh meat 
are factors causing larger consumption of cured meats. (See Table 
21.) 
Table 21. — Comparative consumption of cured and fresh meats in rural and 
urban communities, 1917 1 
' 
Section 
Cured 
meats 
Fresh 
meats 
The North: 
Rural.. . 
Per cent 
57 
23 
79 
44 
49 
18 
Per cent 
43 
77 
The South: 
Rural 
21 
56 
The West: 
Rural ... . . ... 
51 
82 
1 Based upon estimates secured in 1918 from 13,000 families giving meat consumption for the year 1917. 
RETAIL STORES 
The retail meat shop is extremely rare in rural sections of the 
South, the general store supplying fresh meats in some localities 
in the winter and less frequently in the summer. In the central and 
western sections rural meat dealers are somewhat more numerous, 
but the production of livestock on the farms and the colder climate 
make possible a considerable amount of farm slaughter of fresh 
meats for home consumption. In the Northeast, with greater density 
of population and lack of meat animals on the farms, the rural retail 
meat shop is found in greater numbers than in any other section of 
the country. 
The prevailing type of store in rural districts is the combination 
meat and grocery store, which is often a general store, handling also 
dry goods and miscellaneous supplies. Of the 137 stores located in 
the rural districts of the eight counties canvassed, 74 per cent were 
of the combination or general-store type, and the remaining 26 per 
cent were straight meat markets. The practice of giving service — 
credit, or delivery, or both — is reported by 88 per cent of these stores. 
It is of interest to contrast these percentages with those of the same 
types and classes of stores in urban sections, where 61 per cent were 
of the combination type, and 74 per cent extended credit or delivery 
service. 
Of the rural stores canvassed, 34 per cent advertised fresh meats, 
compared with 29 per cent of city stores. The amount of advertising 
seems to be determined largely by local conditions. Competition for 
farmer trade was keen among stores if more than one was located in 
a village and between stores of different villages in prosperous farm- 
ing communities. In these communities the opportunity for influ- 
encing trade through advertising is of course greater than that of the 
ordinary small store in the city through the metropolitan newspaper. 
It is more comparable to the opportunity of the chain store or of the 
large city market advertising in metropolitan newspapers. 
Because of the comparatively small volume of business, rural deal- 
ers purchase less of their meat in the carcass than do city dealers. 
The tendency to handle cuts increases with the ease with which sup- 
plies may be obtained. A larger percentage of dealers handle cuts in 
