Market Structure and Characteristics

 Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit were selected as study cities

 because they are important markets for Florida celery and a relatively

 small number of wholesale and retail firms accounts for a large share

 of produce sales in each city. In each city, the leading retailers,

 in terms of number of stores, share of total grocery sales in the mar-

 ket area, and volume of celery handled were identified and executives

 in those firms interviewed. The six retail firms interviewed in

 Philadelphia had a total of 387 supermarkets and accounted for about

 59 percent of the grocery store sales in the trade area. The eight

 Boston retail firms were comprised of 507 supermarkets with approxi-

 mately 53 percent of the market, and the five Detroit retailers had

 513 stores and 71 percent of grocery store sales (Table 2). Whole-

 salers handling the majority of celery volume through wholesale channels

 were also identified and personnel of those firms interviewed.

 All firm representatives were asked celery volume handled in an

average week. Nineteen retailers, with more than 1,400 stores in the

three market areas, handled about 19,300 crates of celery per week

(Table 2). The 14 wholesalers reportedly handled 34,100 crates weekly,

so that the 33 firms contacted in the study reported weekly celery vol-

ume of about 53,400 crates (Table 3). There was some double counting

due to retailers obtaining celery from the wholesalers, but when the

double counting was eliminated, the firms interviewed for the study

accounted for nearly 50,000 crates of celery per week.

 Firms included in the study exhibited considerable variation in

the weekly volume of celery handled. The 19 retailers were about