Merchandising of Selected Food Items in Grocery Stores: Canned Red Sour Cherries, Carrots, and Bananas

Excerpts from the report: Within recent years there have been important changes in merchandising practices in retail grocery stores. In many stores today the consumer has the opportunity to select the type or quantity of products desired without being influenced by a clerk. Thus, the consumer's decision is more directly affected by the display, type and size of package, price in relation to competing products, labeling, advertising, and many other retailing factors than formerly. Increased production of agricultural products through technical advances also has brought pressure upon the marketing system to move larger quantities into the hands of consumers. Therefore, it is important that the merchandising program, an important facet of the marketing system, function at a high level of effectiveness. Experimental research was carried out in a selected group of retail food stores in Pittsburgh, Pa., during the spring and winter of 1954-55, directed toward determining which of several methods of merchandising would be most successful in moving larger quantities of each of three products into consumption.