34 BULLETIN 1317, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The practice of advertising is more extensive among cash-and- 
carry stores than among service stores, because the former are more 
generally patronized b}^ transient customers who are more likely to 
be influenced by advertisements. When credit is extended or de- 
livery service maintained, the trade is more permanent. 
Chain stores advertise more generally than any other type. (See 
Table 18.) Chain systems find advertising in newspapers more 
profitable than individual stores, because a single advertisement of 
a chain system draws attention to all the stores of the system. It 
is only the exceptionally large downtown individual market com- 
peting for transient trade that finds newspaper advertising profit- 
able in somewhat the same degree as the chain system. 
Deceptive advertising of meats is more prevalent than that of 
most food products. Since the average customer is unskilled in 
judging the quality of meat and standard brands are less possible 
in fresh meats than in many less perishable products, deceptive 
advertising is especially easy in the meat trade. Official standard- 
ization of classes and grades and education of consumers regarding 
the fundamental characteristics of each would render deceptive 
advertising less effective. It was a matter of general observation 
during the canvass of the trade that the most extensive advertis- 
ing is done by shops handling medium and common grades of beef. 
Unless the consumer is fully qualified to judge the quality of meat, 
his best assurance of securing the grade and quality represented is 
the personal integrity and reliability of the dealers that he pat- 
ronizes. 
The practice of displaying retail prices of fresh meat is not gen- 
eral either by displaying prices by means of tags on the meat or 
descriptive signs or placards posted in conspicuous places in or 
about the stores. Among 2,830 stores in representative cities, only 
19 per cent reported that they, displayed prices regularly. ( See 
Table 19.) Cash-and-carry stores use price tags more generally 
than service stores, since these tags are effective in attracting tran- 
sient trade, and are helpful to personal shoppers. Service stores 
depend more generally upon their regular customers, many of whom 
order meats by telephone. Of the cash-and-carry stores 37 per 
cent, and of the service stores only 13 per cent were found to dis- 
play prices. The practice of displaying prices is far more prevalent 
among chain stores than individual, 71 per cent of them making use 
of price tags, in most instances as a part of the well-defined plan 
under which these stores are operated. 
In larger stores where meat is cut in advance of sale, the practice 
of displaying prices on the meat is helpful to customers, since it 
enables them to associate the price with the particular cut or grade. 
It conserves the. time of the salesman and enables purchasers to 
make more satisfactory selections. In small stores where meats are 
not cut in advance and in some large shops where the trade requires 
meat cut to> order, satisfactory display of prices is more difficult. 
The general display of prices on windows, blackboards, and placards 
not directly associated with the meats described means little to the 
purchaser. Where conditions permit, the most complete display 
and the most direct association of prices with each cut and grade 
of meat are commendable. 
