Increasing Broiler Sales Through Offering an Additional Cut and Recipe Materials: A Preliminary Report

Report Summary: Changes in retail merchandising practices for broilers, primarily the accelerated trend toward merchandising selected parts, has resulted in problems in selling backs, necks, and sometimes wings. A large volume of these parts are either sold at extremely low prices, or disposed of as waste. Costs involved with the unsalable parts must be included in the price customers pay for the preferred cuts and may adversely affect the total movement of broilers. The sales effectiveness of broiler quarter cuts, a practice employed by some retailers as a means of selling backs and wings (cuts in weak demand at the retail level), is evaluated in this study. Total broiler sales in retail food stores increased an average of 16 percent when the quarter cut was added to broiler displays. The normal display of whole birds, whole-cut-up birds, and individual parts (leg, breast, thighs, etc.) served as a basis of comparison in 12 supermarkets over a period of 6 weeks starting August 20, 1962. In one test city, where quarters had been advertised and merchandised prior to the study, 14 percent of broiler sales were in quarters when this cut was tested. Only 3 percent of sales were in quarters in a second market, where quarters were relatively unknown. However, in both cities, additional display area was allotted to broilers when quarters were offered. The combination of the additional cut and display area increased sales. Sales differences were not measurably affected when a label with a recipe was attached to broiler packages, a recipe leaflet was displayed at point-of-purchase, or there was no recipe material.