50,000 crates; see Table 6), from 80 to 85 percent comes from Florida

during the January-May period. The Florida share drops sharply in

June as the Florida season comes to an end.

 California supplies most celery to study markets during the July-

to-November period when Florida is out of production. Some Michigan

celery is used during the late summer and early fall, particularly in

the Detroit market, as would be expected. Some firms also use New

York and Ohio celery during Florida's off-season, but the quantities

are minimal.

 A key point stated by practically all retailers is that retail

firms continue using Florida celery once they change over. Retailers

plan their produce advertisements and special features two to three

weeks in advance and prefer to remain with produce from one growing

area if possible. Of course, unfavorable weather or other factors that

lower quality or reduce supplies cause retailers to purchase celery

elsewhere. The study found that retailers begin purchasing Florida

celery when they consider quality to be acceptable. This is based

heavily on buyers' past experiences with celery from Florida and other

growing areas. The general practice is to change Florida celery "about

the same time as last year" or "about when we always do." These pro-

curement practices, guided by habit or tradition, may be somewhat

difficult to modify. However, the effort might be worthwhile. For

example, Boston firms reported that they usually do not begin buying

Florida celery until December (Figure 1). If product quality early in

November should be particularly good, an effort to attract Boston