User:VulcanOfWalden/Sandbox

^ (Anonymous 1929) “ "In 1928 there were 155 public freezers and cold storage warehouses in the United States and Alaska devoted wholly or in part to the storage of frozen and cured fishery products. the average monthly holdings during the past few years have increased, amounting to 53,925,000 pounds in 1928, or 10% more than in 1927 and 22% more than the five-year average. The quantity of fish frozen, amounting to 113,637,898 pounds, is greater than the amount in any other year for which there are records.” (as quoted from a Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries)
^ (Anonymous 1929) “ "Packaged fresh and frozen fish were produced in 85 plants operated in twelve states. The output amounted to 65,245,376 pounds, valued at $9,790,024. Haddock accounted for 87% of the total quantity prepared. Other species packaged to a considerable extent were cod, squeteague, hake and croaker. Massachusetts accounted for 65% of the production, and Connecticut and New York also packaged important quantities. Of the total production, fillets accounted for 89%; the rest consisted of dressed fish, pan-dressed fish, sticks, steaks and tenderloins.” (as quoted from a Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries)
^ (Anonymous 1953) “ Quick-frozen precooked fish sticks, introduced yesterday by the Birds Eye division of the General Foods Corporation, may give a much-needed lift to the fishing industry by raising the consumption of fish in this country, according to Herbert N. Stevens, Birds Eye product manager of seafoods.”
^ (Anonymous 1953) “ [Mr. Stevens said] fish sticks are in a form which does not remotely suggest the usual appearance of a fish product … answer the many prejudices which some homemakers have against the cooking of fish. Actually, no cooking is required. We have completely removed the objections against handling fish and so-called cooking odors.”
^ (Anonymous 1953) “ received enthusiastic reception in key test markets during the last twelve months … Developed after more than three years of experimentation at the Birds Eye Seafoods Laboratories in Boston, the fish sticks are packaged ten to a ten-ounce package.”
^ (Anonymous 1953) “ All they require for preparation is to be spread out on a cookie sheet and heated for twelve to fifteen minutes in a preheated oven. No actual cooking is required.”
^ (Geist 1954) “ The sticks are the first really new processing development in a quarter-century for one of the nation's oldest industries. they first appeared, in market tests, about 14 months ago, with a handful of companies starting commercial distribution last summer. During all of 1953, thirteen companies produced 7.5 million pounds of them. In the first quarter of this year, the same 13 companies alone sold 9 million pounds, or three times their rate of the year-earlier period. But during the past four months, reports the Fish and Wildlife Service, another 55 companies had jumped into the business before the Government bureau lost count. Now, says a spokesman, fish processors and distributors are coming in so fast that there's no way to keep track.”
^ (Geist 1954) “ Listen to the story told by Mr. Stevens of Birds Eye: "We've been distributing frozen fillets for years. But in the few districts where we've introduced the sticks, they're already outselling the fillets. In one typical market during a recent three-month period, our Birds Eye fish sticks sold twice the volume of Birds Eye frozen strawberries, almost five times as much as asparagus spears, nearly three times cut green beans, and half again as much as peas." Birds Eye fish sticks are selling so far in only three of General Foods' 17 marketing districts, and sales, Mr. Stevens adds, are limited only by what the company's machinery can turn out.”
^ (Geist 1954) “ Fulham Bros. of Boston started marketing the sticks last July on a test basis. Currently the company has introduced the Four Fishermen brand into 14 cities; it hopes to have nationwide distribution by the end of the year.”
^ (Geist 1954) “ The fish merchants point out that fish consumption has held steady at between 10 and 12 pounds per capita annually for almost 50 years. Now they see bright visions of upping that per-capita consumption by almost 50% within a few years. And that in spite of a cost differential which might presumably scare off some buyers. The average 10-ounce package of the pre-cooked sticks sells for between 49 cents and 59 cents, compared with 40 to 43 cents for a pound of the frozen fillets, which aren't breaded or cooked.”
^ (Geist 1954) “ Despite the packers' generally bright optimism, there are some caution signs along the road ahead for the new products. A big Southwestern processor warns: "What's gonna make or break this business is how well the batter and breading is done, how tasty that is, and how well it's cooked." Some of his colleagues recall that a few years ago, when there was a fast scramble into the preparation of frozen pre-cooked breaded shrimp, some processors failed to keep quality high.”
^ (Geist 1954) “ "It's helping to get the kids for the first time," notes John Del Torchio, president of Cape Ann Fisheries of Gloucester, Mass. "For several reasons, the kids love them. There's no bones, for one thing. School lunch programs took to them fast, because the kids would take them where they wouldn't take any other kind of fish. And the youngsters have been selling their parents on buying them for the home."”
^ (Geist 1954) “ Demand for the sticks is so great, he says, that even the imports—which accounted for almost 25% of all U.S. fish consumption last year—can't take care of it.”
^ (Geist 1954) “ The sticks are now being made of an assortment of species, including cod, haddock, perch, whiting and flounder. And although this is a hotly argued point among stick producers, most fish men agree privately that after breading and deep frying, the consumer can't really tell most varieties apart.”
^ (Geist 1954) “ Mr. Fulham of Boston sums up this development this way: "Until now, there's never been a successful fishing business over a long-run period. We've always been traders and speculators, depending on the fluctuations of the market. Now we're in the grocery business, and we can appeal directly to the consumer. Right now, for instance, we're running a big sampling program in Detroit, hitting some 200,000 families with coupons. That's the first time we've ever been able to promote a brand of fish. "Now we can use national advertising, mass merchandising techniques to reach a mass market—and in turn, we can adapt mass production techniques on a year-round basis. And we can use the effectiveness of both to produce a predictable profit. "And that, for the fish business, is really a brand new idea."”
^ (Nickerson 1954) “ The crispness results from breading (dipping in beaten egg and then in crumbs) and deep-fat frying, a process that gives a certain taste, too. This is very much to the good, for the fact is that frozen, boned fish lacks flavor. One fish expert once remarked that frozen fillets had everything except taste. They were quick and odorless to cook, and easy to eat because they were boneless. But, he insisted, they were tasteless. The breading and frying process endows a boned piece of fish with interest in much the way that breading and frying a bland-flavored veal cutlet give it an appeal.”
^ (Staff Reporter 1954) “ President Eisenhower rejected a tariff commission recommendation for higher import duties and quota restrictions on these fish on the grounds that frozen fish sticks are selling so well they may increase fish consumption enough to solve a good part of the domestic industry's problems. The commission had recommended that the tariff on some parts of our imports of groundfish fillets (fillets of cod, haddock, pollock, cusk and rosefish) be raised from 1⅞ cents per pound to 2½ cents per pound, and that imports be limited to 37% of the average annual consumption of the preceding five years. The President said he recognized the fishing industry of New England, which produces most of the domestic groundfish fillets has not had an easy time. But he said, "The great unsolved problem has been to expand its markets. The convenient, frozen fish sticks made from the fillets look like they may be the answer, he indicated. "Conceivably, consumption may increase by almost 50% within a few years as a result of the product," he said.”
^ (Hillery 1955) “ Clarke Swanson, president of the Swanson firm, sums up the appeal of the frozen dinner when he describes it as "a great, great convenience." The full pre-cooked meal, of course, carries the time-saving, labor-saving possibilities of individual frozen foods several steps farther. It's an extension of the trend that has shown up in everything from canned hamburgers to poultry in parts. The consumer demand for convenience "is probably the most significant trend in the food business today," states Joseph H. Wager, general sales manager of Chicago's Fox De Luxe Foods, Inc.”
^ (Hillery 1955) “ As one explanation of the popularity of frozen meals, Clarke Swanson notes that "about 19 million women now hold jobs outside the home, about 10 million of whom are married, and they want something that can be prepared quickly with little trouble." But this desire is not limited to working wives. "All housewives are becoming increasingly unwilling to spend a great amount of time in the kitchen," observes Mr. Windsor of Fox De Luxe Foods. "And there's also a lack of domestic help."”
^ (Anonymous 1955) “ The booming fish stick industry produced 50.1 million pounds of the fast-selling new food item last year compared with only 7.5 million pounds in 1953, the Government reported.”
^ (Anonymous 1955) “ Most fish sticks are made from cod, but haddock, ocean perch and a few other species are also used.”
^ (Church 1956) “ Fish stick packers are sailing on stormy waters. Production of their frozen seafood specialty is falling sharply after a spectacular two-year rise. Profits are foundering beneath heavy waves of price-cutting. A competitive riptide has swept nearly one packer of every four to the bottom since early 1955, and more may go under before it runs its course.”
^ (Church 1956) “ What then brought on the storm? The answer, besides concerning fishermen, food processors and the fish-eating public, may interest businessmen in quite different lines of enterprise. For it spells out some of the dangers that may await any hot new product when its introductory success is great enough to touch off a pell-mell boom. Danger No. 1: Too many companies jump into the new business too soon. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service listed only 13 fish stick packers at the end of 1953. Four months later there were 55—and new firms were coming in so fast that the Service temporarily lost count. Danger No. 2: Prices and profit margins may collapse in the ensuing scramble. Ten-ounce packages of fish sticks wholesaled as high as $4.75 per dozen in 1953, today the fierce competition has trimmed quotes for this package size to $3.55 or less. "And to my knowledge nobody is making any money on sticks now," one packer says. Danger No. 3: Consumers can revolt. Price-slashing may tempt some producers to lower quality standards, with damaging effects to the whole industry. "When prices slipped many marginal packers cut back on quality to stay in business—and this drove away a lot of potential customers who tried the lower-grade product and lost interest," charges Frank Holas, assistant sales manager of Chicago's big Booth Fisheries Corp.”
^ (Church 1956) “ The consequences of this chaotic cycle began to show up in the last three months of 1955, when stick production fell "slightly" below a year earlier, according to the Fish & Wildlife Service. This dip didn't keep last year's total output from hitting a record 65.4 million pounds—more than eight times the 7.5 million pounds packed two years earlier. But it signalled the onset of a slump which has begun getting steeper ever since. In the first three months of 1956—which include the big Lenten fish-eating season—stick output fell 12% under 1955. And in the second quarter it sank a deep 33%. That cut the January-through-June pack to 27.7 million pounds, about 23% less than the 36 million pounds put up in 1955's first half. The production decline has been accompanied by a wave of failures among the packers. In early 1955, when the Fish & Wildlife Service resumed its count of stick producers after losing track, there were 57. Today it can find only 43.”
^ (Church 1956) “ And as for per-capita fish consumption, which, of course, includes other seafoods, it's now running between 10 and 10½ pounds a year—below the 11-pound rate of prewar (and pre-fish-stick) 1940.”
^ (Church 1956) “ A start was made on the quality problem last month, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture put into effect "voluntary standards" for Federal inspection and grading of fish sticks. The key provision of these rules is that a stick must consist of at least 60% fish flesh (i.e. only 40% of its cooked weight can be breading).”
^ (Church 1956) “ No one denies, however, that standards of some sort are needed. Leading packers are reluctant to open up publicly on the quality practices of some of their competitors, but in private many get surprisingly bitter on the subject. "This business takes so little capital to enter that anybody with a bandsaw and a pound of fish is a fish-stick packer," explodes an executive of one Eastern firm. "So it attracted a lot of opportunists who tried to make a fast buck by cheating on quality. Some used partly discolored fish with an off-taste, some turned out sticks that were only half fish and half breading. Some did both."”
^ (Church 1956) “ A much-debated part of the quality question has been the recent reduction in the size of the individual stick. Originally, most fish sticks weighed an ounce and they were packed in 10-once boxes. But last year many packers cut the weight of each stick to eight-tenths of an ounce and began packing them in eight-ounce cartons. Mistake or Master Stroke? A number of producers now feel this move was a mistake. They think housewives felt cheated by the smaller sticks; in addition, some charge that producers in cutting the size of the stick often reduced the fish content more than the breading. "I'm sure the industry's decline in sales is partly due to this reduction in size," growls Gorton's Mr. Jacobs.”
^ (Church 1956) “ For most packers, the shift to the smaller stick was occasioned by the industry's bitter price war. By mid-1955, when the eight-ounce package was generally introduced, the wholesale price of the old 10-ounce box had been knocked down to $3.90 a dozen from the opening 1953 price of $4.75. The eight-ounce packages were first offered for $3.55 a dozen, which at the time represented a slight increase in the price per ounce. But this move didn't stop the price-cutting. the eight-ounce packages today have been reduced to about $3.17 a dozen at wholesale by many producers, while those packers still selling 10-ounce boxes have whittled their prices to $3.50 or $3.55 a dozen.”
^ (Church 1956) “ The worst effect of this price-slashing, stick men say, has been to wipe out the funds needed for promotion. "The reason we had such a boom at the outset was that we had a pretty good profit margin and enough money to promote the product and create excitement in the market," sighs John R. O'Donnell, president of O'Donnell-Usen, which turns out "Taste O'Sea" sticks. "Now prices have been forced down to such an irreducible minimum and there's not much money left for the promotion we need to revive sales." "Price became a factor sooner than it should have, so advertising funds were lacking and the job of market building was never fully done," agrees Fulham Bros.' Mr. Fulham.”
^ (Nagle 1961) “ The question is often asked whether the lack of refrigeration in European homes hinders frozen food sales. Mr. Williams concedes that it does to some extent. However, European housewives buy daily and consume the same or next day. In some countries, where the climate is cooler and there is no refrigerator in thehome, frozen foods are usually kept on the window sill overnight, he said.”
^ (Nagle 1969) “ Frozen fish portions and fish sticks, relatively new products, had record volumes in 1968 of 179.2 million and 91.6 million pounds, respectively.”

References[edit]

Anonymous (November 27, 1929), "FISH PRODUCTS SET NEW HIGHS", The Wall Street Journal, p. 10, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1991) database document ID: 109431740{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Anonymous (October 3, 1953), "NEW PRODUCT SEEN SPURRING FISH USE", The New York Times, p. Section: Financial Business, p. 26, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005) database document ID: 84426205, retrieved 2009-01-28{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Anonymous (February 14, 1955), "Fish Stick Output Soared To 50 Million Pounds in '54", The Wall Street Journal, p. 9, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1991) database document ID: 70643471{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Bowden, Sue; Offer, Avner (November 1994), "Household Appliances and the Use of Time: The United States and Britain Since the 1920s", The Economic History Review, New Series, 47 (4), Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Economic History Society: 725–748, ISSN 0013-0117, retrieved 2009-02-02{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Church, George J. (August 30, 1956), "Fish Sticks", The Wall Street Journal, pp. 1 & 8, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1991) database document ID: 70860501{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Geist, Lee (May 7, 1954), "Fish Fillip", The Wall Street Journal, pp. 1 & 11, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1991) database document ID: 76240998{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Hillery, Victor J. (February 4, 1955), "Ma's Revolt", The Wall Street Journal, pp. 1 & 7, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1991) database document ID: 70637490{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Josephson, Paul R. (January 2008), "The Ocean's Hot Dog: The Development of the Fish Stick", Technology and Culture, 49 (1), Johns Hopkins University Press: 41–61, doi:10.1353/tech.2008.0023, ISSN 1097-3729{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Nagle, James J. (September 10, 1961), "Frozen Foods Win Europeans' Favor", The New York Times, p. Section: Business and Finance, p. F1 & F11, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005) database document ID: 97244915, retrieved 2009-02-06{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Nagle, James J. (June 1, 1969), "Fish Industry Gets a Hidden Blessing From Rome", The New York Times, p. Section: Business and Finance, p. F12, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005) database document ID: 90108015, retrieved 2009-02-02{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Nickerson, Jane (May 20, 1954), "News of Food; Fish Sticks Soar in Public Favor With New Makers by Dozens in Field", The New York Times, p. 37, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005) database document ID: 83334520, retrieved 2009-01-28{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Staff Reporter (July 6, 1954), "Fish Sticks' Popularity Costs Frozen Fillets An Increase in Tariffs", The Wall Street Journal, p. 1, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1991) database document ID: 81330083{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

[33] Test note text.

[1] (Anonymous 1929) “ "In 1928 there were 155 public freezers and cold storage warehouses in the United States and Alaska devoted wholly or in part to the storage of frozen and cured fishery products. the average monthly holdings during the past few years have increased, amounting to 53,925,000 pounds in 1928, or 10% more than in 1927 and 22% more than the five-year average. The quantity of fish frozen, amounting to 113,637,898 pounds, is greater than the amount in any other year for which there are records.” (as quoted from a Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries)

[2] (Anonymous 1929) “ "Packaged fresh and frozen fish were produced in 85 plants operated in twelve states. The output amounted to 65,245,376 pounds, valued at $9,790,024. Haddock accounted for 87% of the total quantity prepared. Other species packaged to a considerable extent were cod, squeteague, hake and croaker. Massachusetts accounted for 65% of the production, and Connecticut and New York also packaged important quantities. Of the total production, fillets accounted for 89%; the rest consisted of dressed fish, pan-dressed fish, sticks, steaks and tenderloins.” (as quoted from a Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries)

[3] (Anonymous 1953) “ Quick-frozen precooked fish sticks, introduced yesterday by the Birds Eye division of the General Foods Corporation, may give a much-needed lift to the fishing industry by raising the consumption of fish in this country, according to Herbert N. Stevens, Birds Eye product manager of seafoods.”

[4] (Anonymous 1953) “ [Mr. Stevens said] fish sticks are in a form which does not remotely suggest the usual appearance of a fish product … answer the many prejudices which some homemakers have against the cooking of fish. Actually, no cooking is required. We have completely removed the objections against handling fish and so-called cooking odors.”

[5] (Anonymous 1953) “ received enthusiastic reception in key test markets during the last twelve months … Developed after more than three years of experimentation at the Birds Eye Seafoods Laboratories in Boston, the fish sticks are packaged ten to a ten-ounce package.”

[6] (Anonymous 1953) “ All they require for preparation is to be spread out on a cookie sheet and heated for twelve to fifteen minutes in a preheated oven. No actual cooking is required.”

[7] (Geist 1954) “ The sticks are the first really new processing development in a quarter-century for one of the nation's oldest industries. they first appeared, in market tests, about 14 months ago, with a handful of companies starting commercial distribution last summer. During all of 1953, thirteen companies produced 7.5 million pounds of them. In the first quarter of this year, the same 13 companies alone sold 9 million pounds, or three times their rate of the year-earlier period. But during the past four months, reports the Fish and Wildlife Service, another 55 companies had jumped into the business before the Government bureau lost count. Now, says a spokesman, fish processors and distributors are coming in so fast that there's no way to keep track.”

[8] (Geist 1954) “ Listen to the story told by Mr. Stevens of Birds Eye: "We've been distributing frozen fillets for years. But in the few districts where we've introduced the sticks, they're already outselling the fillets. In one typical market during a recent three-month period, our Birds Eye fish sticks sold twice the volume of Birds Eye frozen strawberries, almost five times as much as asparagus spears, nearly three times cut green beans, and half again as much as peas." Birds Eye fish sticks are selling so far in only three of General Foods' 17 marketing districts, and sales, Mr. Stevens adds, are limited only by what the company's machinery can turn out.”

[9] (Geist 1954) “ Fulham Bros. of Boston started marketing the sticks last July on a test basis. Currently the company has introduced the Four Fishermen brand into 14 cities; it hopes to have nationwide distribution by the end of the year.”

[10] (Geist 1954) “ The fish merchants point out that fish consumption has held steady at between 10 and 12 pounds per capita annually for almost 50 years. Now they see bright visions of upping that per-capita consumption by almost 50% within a few years. And that in spite of a cost differential which might presumably scare off some buyers. The average 10-ounce package of the pre-cooked sticks sells for between 49 cents and 59 cents, compared with 40 to 43 cents for a pound of the frozen fillets, which aren't breaded or cooked.”

[11] (Geist 1954) “ Despite the packers' generally bright optimism, there are some caution signs along the road ahead for the new products. A big Southwestern processor warns: "What's gonna make or break this business is how well the batter and breading is done, how tasty that is, and how well it's cooked." Some of his colleagues recall that a few years ago, when there was a fast scramble into the preparation of frozen pre-cooked breaded shrimp, some processors failed to keep quality high.”

[12] (Geist 1954) “ "It's helping to get the kids for the first time," notes John Del Torchio, president of Cape Ann Fisheries of Gloucester, Mass. "For several reasons, the kids love them. There's no bones, for one thing. School lunch programs took to them fast, because the kids would take them where they wouldn't take any other kind of fish. And the youngsters have been selling their parents on buying them for the home."”

[13] (Geist 1954) “ Demand for the sticks is so great, he says, that even the imports—which accounted for almost 25% of all U.S. fish consumption last year—can't take care of it.”

[14] (Geist 1954) “ The sticks are now being made of an assortment of species, including cod, haddock, perch, whiting and flounder. And although this is a hotly argued point among stick producers, most fish men agree privately that after breading and deep frying, the consumer can't really tell most varieties apart.”

[15] (Geist 1954) “ Mr. Fulham of Boston sums up this development this way: "Until now, there's never been a successful fishing business over a long-run period. We've always been traders and speculators, depending on the fluctuations of the market. Now we're in the grocery business, and we can appeal directly to the consumer. Right now, for instance, we're running a big sampling program in Detroit, hitting some 200,000 families with coupons. That's the first time we've ever been able to promote a brand of fish. "Now we can use national advertising, mass merchandising techniques to reach a mass market—and in turn, we can adapt mass production techniques on a year-round basis. And we can use the effectiveness of both to produce a predictable profit. "And that, for the fish business, is really a brand new idea."”

[16] (Nickerson 1954) “ The crispness results from breading (dipping in beaten egg and then in crumbs) and deep-fat frying, a process that gives a certain taste, too. This is very much to the good, for the fact is that frozen, boned fish lacks flavor. One fish expert once remarked that frozen fillets had everything except taste. They were quick and odorless to cook, and easy to eat because they were boneless. But, he insisted, they were tasteless. The breading and frying process endows a boned piece of fish with interest in much the way that breading and frying a bland-flavored veal cutlet give it an appeal.”

[17] (Staff Reporter 1954) “ President Eisenhower rejected a tariff commission recommendation for higher import duties and quota restrictions on these fish on the grounds that frozen fish sticks are selling so well they may increase fish consumption enough to solve a good part of the domestic industry's problems. The commission had recommended that the tariff on some parts of our imports of groundfish fillets (fillets of cod, haddock, pollock, cusk and rosefish) be raised from 1⅞ cents per pound to 2½ cents per pound, and that imports be limited to 37% of the average annual consumption of the preceding five years. The President said he recognized the fishing industry of New England, which produces most of the domestic groundfish fillets has not had an easy time. But he said, "The great unsolved problem has been to expand its markets. The convenient, frozen fish sticks made from the fillets look like they may be the answer, he indicated. "Conceivably, consumption may increase by almost 50% within a few years as a result of the product," he said.”

[18] (Hillery 1955) “ Clarke Swanson, president of the Swanson firm, sums up the appeal of the frozen dinner when he describes it as "a great, great convenience." The full pre-cooked meal, of course, carries the time-saving, labor-saving possibilities of individual frozen foods several steps farther. It's an extension of the trend that has shown up in everything from canned hamburgers to poultry in parts. The consumer demand for convenience "is probably the most significant trend in the food business today," states Joseph H. Wager, general sales manager of Chicago's Fox De Luxe Foods, Inc.”

[19] (Hillery 1955) “ As one explanation of the popularity of frozen meals, Clarke Swanson notes that "about 19 million women now hold jobs outside the home, about 10 million of whom are married, and they want something that can be prepared quickly with little trouble." But this desire is not limited to working wives. "All housewives are becoming increasingly unwilling to spend a great amount of time in the kitchen," observes Mr. Windsor of Fox De Luxe Foods. "And there's also a lack of domestic help."”

[20] (Anonymous 1955) “ The booming fish stick industry produced 50.1 million pounds of the fast-selling new food item last year compared with only 7.5 million pounds in 1953, the Government reported.”

[21] (Anonymous 1955) “ Most fish sticks are made from cod, but haddock, ocean perch and a few other species are also used.”

[22] (Church 1956) “ Fish stick packers are sailing on stormy waters. Production of their frozen seafood specialty is falling sharply after a spectacular two-year rise. Profits are foundering beneath heavy waves of price-cutting. A competitive riptide has swept nearly one packer of every four to the bottom since early 1955, and more may go under before it runs its course.”

[23] (Church 1956) “ What then brought on the storm? The answer, besides concerning fishermen, food processors and the fish-eating public, may interest businessmen in quite different lines of enterprise. For it spells out some of the dangers that may await any hot new product when its introductory success is great enough to touch off a pell-mell boom. Danger No. 1: Too many companies jump into the new business too soon. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service listed only 13 fish stick packers at the end of 1953. Four months later there were 55—and new firms were coming in so fast that the Service temporarily lost count. Danger No. 2: Prices and profit margins may collapse in the ensuing scramble. Ten-ounce packages of fish sticks wholesaled as high as $4.75 per dozen in 1953, today the fierce competition has trimmed quotes for this package size to $3.55 or less. "And to my knowledge nobody is making any money on sticks now," one packer says. Danger No. 3: Consumers can revolt. Price-slashing may tempt some producers to lower quality standards, with damaging effects to the whole industry. "When prices slipped many marginal packers cut back on quality to stay in business—and this drove away a lot of potential customers who tried the lower-grade product and lost interest," charges Frank Holas, assistant sales manager of Chicago's big Booth Fisheries Corp.”

[24] (Church 1956) “ The consequences of this chaotic cycle began to show up in the last three months of 1955, when stick production fell "slightly" below a year earlier, according to the Fish & Wildlife Service. This dip didn't keep last year's total output from hitting a record 65.4 million pounds—more than eight times the 7.5 million pounds packed two years earlier. But it signalled the onset of a slump which has begun getting steeper ever since. In the first three months of 1956—which include the big Lenten fish-eating season—stick output fell 12% under 1955. And in the second quarter it sank a deep 33%. That cut the January-through-June pack to 27.7 million pounds, about 23% less than the 36 million pounds put up in 1955's first half. The production decline has been accompanied by a wave of failures among the packers. In early 1955, when the Fish & Wildlife Service resumed its count of stick producers after losing track, there were 57. Today it can find only 43.”

[25] (Church 1956) “ And as for per-capita fish consumption, which, of course, includes other seafoods, it's now running between 10 and 10½ pounds a year—below the 11-pound rate of prewar (and pre-fish-stick) 1940.”

[26] (Church 1956) “ A start was made on the quality problem last month, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture put into effect "voluntary standards" for Federal inspection and grading of fish sticks. The key provision of these rules is that a stick must consist of at least 60% fish flesh (i.e. only 40% of its cooked weight can be breading).”

[27] (Church 1956) “ No one denies, however, that standards of some sort are needed. Leading packers are reluctant to open up publicly on the quality practices of some of their competitors, but in private many get surprisingly bitter on the subject. "This business takes so little capital to enter that anybody with a bandsaw and a pound of fish is a fish-stick packer," explodes an executive of one Eastern firm. "So it attracted a lot of opportunists who tried to make a fast buck by cheating on quality. Some used partly discolored fish with an off-taste, some turned out sticks that were only half fish and half breading. Some did both."”

[28] (Church 1956) “ A much-debated part of the quality question has been the recent reduction in the size of the individual stick. Originally, most fish sticks weighed an ounce and they were packed in 10-once boxes. But last year many packers cut the weight of each stick to eight-tenths of an ounce and began packing them in eight-ounce cartons. Mistake or Master Stroke? A number of producers now feel this move was a mistake. They think housewives felt cheated by the smaller sticks; in addition, some charge that producers in cutting the size of the stick often reduced the fish content more than the breading. "I'm sure the industry's decline in sales is partly due to this reduction in size," growls Gorton's Mr. Jacobs.”

[29] (Church 1956) “ For most packers, the shift to the smaller stick was occasioned by the industry's bitter price war. By mid-1955, when the eight-ounce package was generally introduced, the wholesale price of the old 10-ounce box had been knocked down to $3.90 a dozen from the opening 1953 price of $4.75. The eight-ounce packages were first offered for $3.55 a dozen, which at the time represented a slight increase in the price per ounce. But this move didn't stop the price-cutting. the eight-ounce packages today have been reduced to about $3.17 a dozen at wholesale by many producers, while those packers still selling 10-ounce boxes have whittled their prices to $3.50 or $3.55 a dozen.”

[30] (Church 1956) “ The worst effect of this price-slashing, stick men say, has been to wipe out the funds needed for promotion. "The reason we had such a boom at the outset was that we had a pretty good profit margin and enough money to promote the product and create excitement in the market," sighs John R. O'Donnell, president of O'Donnell-Usen, which turns out "Taste O'Sea" sticks. "Now prices have been forced down to such an irreducible minimum and there's not much money left for the promotion we need to revive sales." "Price became a factor sooner than it should have, so advertising funds were lacking and the job of market building was never fully done," agrees Fulham Bros.' Mr. Fulham.”

[31] (Nagle 1961) “ The question is often asked whether the lack of refrigeration in European homes hinders frozen food sales. Mr. Williams concedes that it does to some extent. However, European housewives buy daily and consume the same or next day. In some countries, where the climate is cooler and there is no refrigerator in thehome, frozen foods are usually kept on the window sill overnight, he said.”

[32] (Nagle 1969) “ Frozen fish portions and fish sticks, relatively new products, had record volumes in 1968 of 179.2 million and 91.6 million pounds, respectively.”

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]

[32]

[note 1]