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Show NO THUMB ON SCALES Extend Prepackasinq to Meat That old caricature of the butcher resting his thumb on the scales as he weighs out the meat soon will vanish completely from the American Amer-ican scene if the trend toward prepackaging pre-packaging of fresh cut meats continues con-tinues at its present pace. Approximately 100 stores across the nation currcnUy are operating their meat departments on that basts, ba-sts, and their cash registers are recording re-cording ample proof that attractively attractive-ly cut meat wrapped In cellophane and placed in display cases sells itself it-self as efficiently as a butcher's sales talk could. With the popular cuts of meat In weights most In demand placed In open-top refrigerated Cases, the housewife can shop at her leisure and not be compelled to wait her turn in line. From the retail standpoint stand-point prepackaging cuts down store overhead and Increases turnover. Although so far, prepackaging largely has been confined to retail shops, large chains are becoming more Interested In streamlined merchandising mer-chandising plans. One has a meat self-service experiment In operation in about 10 Detroit stores, with the prepackaging done at a central distribution dis-tribution point. At least one local of the Amalgamated Amal-gamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen's union has vetoed the idea of pre cuttlng fresh meats. 'but general opinion among other union locals Is that the practice would be a favorable one Insofar at it would r allow butchers to concentrate on their skilled trade instead of spending spend-ing time serving customers. Customer demand, which admittedly admit-tedly takes peculiar turns at times, can, nevertheless, be anUclpated by analyzing customer buying habits. For Instance, steaks and chop-would chop-would be cut in several thlcknessei so that virtually every customer could pick up exactly the kind and cut of meat he had in mind. Experiments have almost wholly disproved the theory that loss ol personal service In butcher shop-would shop-would result In a decline of sales, principally because attractively packaged meat displays become an effective selling medium in themselves. |