Excerpts from the report: This is the fourth of a series of reports on the movement of shell eggs through major marketing channels in 18 large metropolitan areas of the United States. Earlier reports presented details on Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland-Vancouver, and Seattle. This report is a summary for these cities and also contains previously unpublished information for Atlanta, Birmingham, Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans, and St. Louis. The study is part of a broad program of research to obtain basic information on egg marketing. This is a summary report of the major movement of shell eggs in 18 large metropolitan areas of the United States. It also contains previously unpublished information for eight of the cities. It presents benchmark data on the number and sizes of firms handling shell eggs and the marketing channels through which eggs flow. Information on volume of eggs handled and marketing functions performed was obtained through mail surveys of all firms thought to be handling 200 or more cases of eggs per month. The major types of firms surveyed were wholesale and producer-distributors, food chain stores, milk distributors, and restaurant chains. The report concludes with brief summaries of the findings for each of the metropolitan areas studied.