TRENDS IN FOOD DISTRIBUTION

The authors present a very detailed and all-inclusive report on the shifting frontiers of food distribution, focusing on the challenges facing the food store operator and the wholesale food distributor during the decade of the Seventies.Agribusiness,

Comparing Two Sources of Retail Meat Price Data

The livestock industry uses information on meat prices at different stages in the marketing system to make production decisions. When grocery stores began using electronic scanners to capture prices paid for meat, it was assumed that the livestock industry could capitalize on having these point-of-sale data available as a measure of the value of its products. This report compares scanner price data with publicly available data collected by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Of the two data types, scanner data provide more information about retail meat markets, including a wider variety of meat-cut prices, multiple measures of an average price, the volume of sales, and the relative importance of discounted prices. The scanner data sample, however, is not statistically drawn, and complicated processing requirements delay its release, which makes scanner data less useful than BLS data for analyzing current market conditions.price spreads, meat, meat pricing, scanner data, retail prices, retail meat prices, farm-to-retail, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

Comparison of Cost Structures of Food Stores and Eating and Drinking Places

Eating and drinking places have increased their dollar share of the total food market. They have a gross margin estimated at 2½ times that of food stores. Although gross margins for the two differ greatly because of the kinds of functions and services performed, individual operating expenses as a share of gross margin are similar. Labor, the largest expense, accounts for slightly over 40 percent of the gross margin of both type of businesses. Operating expenses as a proportion of sales tend to be lower for larger firms, indicating higher profit ratios

TRENDS IN FOOD DISTRIBUTION

The authors present a very detailed and all-inclusive report on the shifting frontiers of food distribution, focusing on the challenges facing the food store operator and the wholesale food distributor during the decade of the Seventies