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Show TiMjvestoclc .SituatiorU ' a . Los Angeles, August 12, 1935 j Los Angeles has become one of the largest meat consuming centers cen-ters in the United States, due to its rapid growth in population. For example, in 1915 the total slaughter of cattle and calves in Los Angeles county totaled 136,-584 136,-584 while in 1934, the slaughter had jumped to 1,017,340. It required re-quired anly 220,711 hogs in this county in 1915 and in 1934, slaughter totaled 812,297. A similar simi-lar huge increase is shown in slaughter of sheep and lambs, the total in 1915 at 386,741 comparing-j with 1,019,013 in 1924. In the meantime, during the same period of years, population of Los Angeles county increased from 815,000 in 1915 to 2,309,372. It takes a great deal of meat to feed this huge population and the ; " thousands of visitors, for Los Angeles continues to hold its position po-sition as a resort and tourist center. cen-ter. Merchandizing of meat to this huge metropolitan area requires a large number of retail meat dealers, deal-ers, in addition to the huge investment invest-ment in slaughtering equipment, refrigeration, delivery service, etc. It is stated that the number of meat retailers within the city limits lim-its of Los Angeles grew from 388 in 1915 to 681 at the present time. Despite the fact that nearly everyone ev-eryone eats meat at least once a day, there are comparatively few consumers who know much about meat. The result is that the .satisfaction .satis-faction of the consumer depends a great deal upon the personality and dependability of the retailer. It seems to me that more depends upon the meat dealer than almost any other salesman, because the meat salesman's goods are not sold from shelf goods- in cans and packages. The retail meat dealer is actual ly the contact between the producer produc-er of livestock and the housewife. It is through the dealer that the producer finds what the public wants. It is this contact, reflected back to the retailers purchases from the packer and the packer's selection of livestock that the trend has changed from mutton to lamb, from heavy steer to baby beef. . There is no substitute for good steak, no substitute for choice leg of lamb. But the remainder of the carcass must be isold, thus it is up to the retailer to merchandise merchan-dise his product so that all parts of the carcass steaks, chops, roasts, rounds, plate, brisket must be sold at prices that the consumer is able and willing to ! pay. It is impossible to raise a steer that can be converted entirely entire-ly into rib steaks. Therefore the meat dealer, in cooperation with other elements of the livestock and meat industry, must continually continu-ally do educational work to merchandize mer-chandize the cheaper cuts of meat that are wholesome and, when properly prepared, tender and appetizing. ap-petizing. o |