Economic and Marketing Information for Indiana Farmers, v. 01, no. 05 (Nov. 1947) |
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FOR INDIANA FARMERS INFORMATION Volume 1, No. 5 Lafayette, Indiana November, 1947 Prepared by members of the Agricultural Staff of Purdue University PACKAGING FARM PRODUCTS FOR PROFIT By G. B. WOOD, Agricultural Economics One of the newest developments turkey meat in small MERCHANDISING is going modern too. Gone are the cracker barrel, the tub of butter, the lard can, the bulk sugar bin and other bulk merchandising methods which were popular in grocery stores 25 years ago. Present day consumers want to buy their food in much smaller units on a self service basis. The reason for this is that families are smaller, there is less food storage space in the average home and it adds to the convenience of shopping. The trend in packaging in recent years has been one of the most noticeable innovations in the field of retailing. Many farm products still are not sold to any great extent in small unit packages. This situation will not continue much longer if the consumer continues to show a preference for packaged foods. Packaging Requires Cooperation The development of unit packaging places definite responsibilities upon the grower, the processor and the distributors who sell the produce. If the packaging of farm products is to succeed in the same way that packaged processed foods have, a high degree of quality standardization must be maintained. Packaging makes it more difficult, and in many cases practically impossible, for the purchaser to inspect the product. A buyer of cheese, for example, cannot conveniently unwrap a half pound package and cut a sample from it to make sure that it suits his taste. If the flavor of the cheese purchased today is good and the flavor of the cheese bought a week later is not good, the consumer is going to be skeptical of what he buys. It has been demonstrated in the field of packaged lettuce that variations in quality of the packaged product definitely affect consumer acceptance and sales. Usually, the average consumers make a decision to buy on the basis of inspection. They rely primarily on their senses in packaging is merchandising consumer packages. of taste, smell, touch and sight. If consumers are unable to use one or more of these basic senses in buying food, they must have some assurance that the quality of the product will be uniform from day to day and from week to week. The food industry, through standardized processing methods, has brought about a high degree of uniformity in many items. In the case of poultry, dairy products and fruits and vegetables some marketing organizations have found it desirable to set up standards or specifications for producing these items. Products must come up to specification or the marketing organization will not handle it when it is ready for market. New Techniques Being Adopted Recent developments in the sale of meats, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, and poultry products suggest that the packaging of these products may go a long way toward maintaining or expanding the markets for these food items. If these techniques are as successful as current research and experiments indicate they may be, profits for producers will be larger than they otherwise might be. Meats Meats, for example, were first sold in package form on a self service basis many years ago. The problems of refrigeration, wrapping, and handling were such that this new technique never reached a high degree of consumer acceptance. Within the last year, a new interest has been shown in selling meats on a self service basis. It has been recognized for years that the meat counter is a bottleneck in the average food store or super market. One Indianapolis merchant is eliminating this bottleneck by wrapping steaks, chops, roasts and other cuts in one, two and three pound packages so that consumers can serve
Object Description
Title | Economic and Marketing Information for Indiana Farmers, v. 01, no. 05 (Nov. 1947) |
Purdue Identification Number | UA14-13-econ194711 |
Date of Original | 1947 |
Publisher | Purdue University. Agricultural Extension Service |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Farm produce--Indiana--Marketing Agriculture--Economic aspects--Indiana |
Genre | Periodical |
Collection Title | Extension Economic & Marketing Information (Purdue University. Agricultural Extension) |
Rights | Copyright Purdue University. All rights reserved. |
Coverage | United States - Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Date Digitized | 02/26/2015 |
Digitization Specifications | Original scanned at 400 ppi on a BookEye 3 scanner using Opus software. Display images generated in Contentdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
URI | UA14-13-econ194711.tif |
Description
Title | Economic and Marketing Information for Indiana Farmers, v. 01, no. 05 (Nov. 1947) |
Purdue Identification Number | UA14-13-econ194711 |
Transcript | FOR INDIANA FARMERS INFORMATION Volume 1, No. 5 Lafayette, Indiana November, 1947 Prepared by members of the Agricultural Staff of Purdue University PACKAGING FARM PRODUCTS FOR PROFIT By G. B. WOOD, Agricultural Economics One of the newest developments turkey meat in small MERCHANDISING is going modern too. Gone are the cracker barrel, the tub of butter, the lard can, the bulk sugar bin and other bulk merchandising methods which were popular in grocery stores 25 years ago. Present day consumers want to buy their food in much smaller units on a self service basis. The reason for this is that families are smaller, there is less food storage space in the average home and it adds to the convenience of shopping. The trend in packaging in recent years has been one of the most noticeable innovations in the field of retailing. Many farm products still are not sold to any great extent in small unit packages. This situation will not continue much longer if the consumer continues to show a preference for packaged foods. Packaging Requires Cooperation The development of unit packaging places definite responsibilities upon the grower, the processor and the distributors who sell the produce. If the packaging of farm products is to succeed in the same way that packaged processed foods have, a high degree of quality standardization must be maintained. Packaging makes it more difficult, and in many cases practically impossible, for the purchaser to inspect the product. A buyer of cheese, for example, cannot conveniently unwrap a half pound package and cut a sample from it to make sure that it suits his taste. If the flavor of the cheese purchased today is good and the flavor of the cheese bought a week later is not good, the consumer is going to be skeptical of what he buys. It has been demonstrated in the field of packaged lettuce that variations in quality of the packaged product definitely affect consumer acceptance and sales. Usually, the average consumers make a decision to buy on the basis of inspection. They rely primarily on their senses in packaging is merchandising consumer packages. of taste, smell, touch and sight. If consumers are unable to use one or more of these basic senses in buying food, they must have some assurance that the quality of the product will be uniform from day to day and from week to week. The food industry, through standardized processing methods, has brought about a high degree of uniformity in many items. In the case of poultry, dairy products and fruits and vegetables some marketing organizations have found it desirable to set up standards or specifications for producing these items. Products must come up to specification or the marketing organization will not handle it when it is ready for market. New Techniques Being Adopted Recent developments in the sale of meats, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, and poultry products suggest that the packaging of these products may go a long way toward maintaining or expanding the markets for these food items. If these techniques are as successful as current research and experiments indicate they may be, profits for producers will be larger than they otherwise might be. Meats Meats, for example, were first sold in package form on a self service basis many years ago. The problems of refrigeration, wrapping, and handling were such that this new technique never reached a high degree of consumer acceptance. Within the last year, a new interest has been shown in selling meats on a self service basis. It has been recognized for years that the meat counter is a bottleneck in the average food store or super market. One Indianapolis merchant is eliminating this bottleneck by wrapping steaks, chops, roasts and other cuts in one, two and three pound packages so that consumers can serve |
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