Outlook for Marketing Services and Implications for Food Prices

Excerpts from the report: One of the most noticeable and persistent trends in the food marketing system has been the tendency of marketing firms to provide increasing quantities of marketing services per unit of product. This has resulted, in part, from the changing consumer tastes and preferences. Many of the tasks of food preparation have been shifted from the home to the marketing system. It is to be noted that food preparation is not the only type of service provided by the marketing system. Food retailers provide a variety of marketing services. These include air conditioned and attractive stores, variety in merchandise offerings, grocery pickup, and large parking lots within easy walking distance to the store. In general, these services also appear to have grown over time. The sum of these changes result in a marketing system today that provides more services with each unit of product sold than it did in past years. Since 1940, the quantity of marketing services has increased by 100 percent while volume of food marketed increased 73 percent. Thus, the volume of services per unit of product increased about 16 percent. This increase in volume of services is of interest because it has affected the price structure for food and has implications for farmers, marketing firms, and consumers alike.