A survey by New York-based The Nielsen Co. found that the vast majority of grocery shoppers are reluctant to ask meat managers or butchers for advice.

In the September Nielsen online Homescan survey of 58,000 U.S. households, 74 percent of respondents indicated that they never ask meat managers/butchers for advice; 18 percent do so on a few shopping trips; 6 percent on just some visits; and just 2 percent on most trips.

The survey also confirmed that persishables departments are popular shopper destinations.

Twenty-four percent of respondents noted that they mostly shop store perimeters on most trips; 30 percent primarily do so on some visits; 29 percent on a few trips; and 17 percent revealed that they almost never primarily shop the perimeter.

In addition, Nielsen found that 50 percent of shoppers look at unit prices to compare products on most of their trips and 28 percent do so on some trips.

Overall, 53 percent of respondents noted that they really enjoy or like grocery shopping; 38 percent agreed that shopping is a chore but not a difficult one; and 9 percent indicated that they dislike or hate shopping.