Food purchases In Virginia during 1963 took 26.9 percent

Food purchases In Virginia during 1963 took 26.9 percent of every dollar spent in retail trade--21.8 percent for groceries to be consumed at home and 5.1 percentfor meals and snacks eaten out. , Automobiles and trucks, with the fuel and accessories to keep them running, accounted for 26.4 percent of the State’s spending in the same yfear. For every dollar spent in 1963 on men’s and boy*s*.clotl> ing in Virginia, $1.87,.'was spent on women's and girls’ apparel. These statistics are taken from a new report on the 1963 Census of Business, Re tail Trade Merchandise Lines just issued by the U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. The report shows dataonthe number of establishments, the amount of sales and the percentage of sales of specific merchandise lines for the entire South Atlantic States area consisting of Delaware, Dis trict of Columbia," Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia; for each of the nine States; for each Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area and for the part of each State not located in any Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. Figures are listed for 25 classes of items in more than 100 kinds of retail establishments in each State and for the South Atlantic States area as a whole, providing an index to sales of various merchandise lines and the percentages accounted for by those lines in total retail sales.