Inventory of Food Products and Beverages in Retail Food Stores

Excerpts from the report: This study presents a special tabulation of the retail food, inventory data collected in connection with the 1957 Retail Food Inventory Survey and first reported in Marketing Research Report No. 286, "Number of Days Supply of Food and Beverages in Retail Stores, A Civil Defense Study," November 1958. The initial purpose of collecting these data was to provide a basis for developing information helpful to the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization in planning emergency feeding programs. Marketing Research Report No. 286 indicates the number of days the food and beverages in stock at the retail level would maintain the population at specified consumption rates by regions and by country population densities. In total, United States retail food stores (excluding warehouses) carried an estimated 5,778,359,000 pounds of foods and beverages in inventory on a day in the spring of 1957. Canned, preserved, and frozen foods were, by far, the most important food group, accounting for slightly more than 31 percent, with beverages next at about 16 percent of the total. The most important single foods volumewise in inventory for each food group were: Fresh and frozen beef, for meat packing plant products; fluid milk, including skimmed milk, for dairy products; canned soups and chowders, including frozen soups, for canned, preserved, and frozen foods; enriched and plain flour, excluding blends, mixes, and self-rising flour, for grain mill products; cookies, for bread and related products; candy sold by the piece, bar, or package, retailing for more than 10 cents, excluding candy sold in pounds or multiple-pound boxes, for confections; cola, root beer, and sarsaparilla flavors of bottled carbonated soft drinks, among the beverages; canned dog and cat food and roasted coffee, among the miscellaneous preparations; and oranges and white potatoes, among the fresh fruits and vegetables. The tables which follow present the detail for individual food items, where feasible and for the major food groups, classified as nearly as possible as in the 1954 Census of Manufactures.