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Show Shoppers adjust to Food Merchandising Food shoppers these days seem to be doing a better job of getting value for their money. That's the observation of Georgia Lauritzen, nutrition specialist, Utah State University Extension. She acknowledges that there is no such thing as an average consumer, but, she says, consumers con-sumers as shoppers are adjusting ad-justing themselves to some trends in food merchandising. She lists these as unit pricing, dating on perishable items, nutrient labeling, a wie selection of frozen foods, mere imitation or substitute foods, electronic scanning at the checkout check-out counter, an increase in use of coupons and a decrease in use of food stamps. Unit pricing, Lauritzen says, can really be an aid to shoppers. It tells them the cost of one ounce or other basic unit, whatever the size package may be. It is a real asset to shoppers, providing it is kept current, she added. The date stamped on the package or carton is the date the store is to take the item off the shelf before it changes in quality. This has a few days built in so that the item purchased and taken home will still have some time to be used. Although nutrient labeling is not yet mandatory, a lot of products now carry this labeling. For the alert shopper, it gives the percent of the recommended daily allowances of nutrients per serving. The extension specialist says this is more workable than saying so many milligrams of such and such a nutrient. Nutrients indicated include protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, riboflavin, thiamine, calcium, iron, vitamin D and may also include vitamin E, folacin, B-12 and phosphorus. The move to more frozen foods ' and to imitation or substitute foods is not new. Diets are enhanced with out-of-season frozen foods, such as ' strawberries in January. They might be reduced in cost with such things as imitation dairy foods and meat substitutes. However, reduced prices on meats and some other foods ; seems to have reduced acceptance ac-ceptance of these products, she ; said. The electronic scanner now being used in some Utah stores is coupled with a computer to automatically read the product , from the series of parallel bars ' printed on the lable. It computes ; the grocery bill from current ; prices fed into the computer and also helps reduce the store's overhead cost by automatically keeping a current inventory. More coupons from newspaper and magazine advertisements, from direct mail and other sources are available. They can I-serve I-serve the shopper well in buying '. items that one would ordinarily ; use. But if they induce a person to buy something not normally wanted simply because they offer 10 or 20 cents off, they are " not a good buy. Lauritzen said women do most of the food shopping but there is an increase seen in the number of , men shopping in grocery stores, For a time, women selected stores that gave food stamps. ; , Now price seems to be the wain ' , concern and there is less use of food stamps. |