The Quarterly Report on Alaska's Food Prices was started by economists at the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station in 1951. Since then, enumerators have collected food prices from three to six retail stores in selected Alaska cities for analysis and reporting by the Experiment Station. Collection of prices occurs simultaneously in each survey city during the week containing the 15th day of the month surveyed. Enumerators quote prices on the brand of each food item which is selling in greatest volume in each store surveyed. Prices of individual food items from the stores in each city are averaged to obtain the survey price. Only six cities were surveyed when the study first began - Anchorage, Palmer, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka. Because o f the need and demand for cost o f living data from other areas with in the state, the survey has been expanded to include Petersburg, Kodiak, Seward, Valdez, Kenai-Soldotna, Nome and Bethel. Over 6,000 copies of Alaska's Quarterly Food Price Reports are printed each quarter and mailed by request to government agencies, chambers of commerce, labor organizations, businesses and individuals throughout Alaska, other states and several foreign countries.

This report is printed and distributed by the University o f Alaska Cooperative Extension Service, in cooperation with the Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Price trends are described and analysed as an aid for Alaskans interested in cost-of-living changes and trends in the retail food prices in Alaska over the 1960 - 1970 period.