The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-25
Are Staple Groceries High, and N If So What Is the
 ReaSon2
GR0CERYMEN ANSWER NO
 CONSUMERS ECHO YES
PilIsbury Flour Now Retailing in Bir- rningham at $7.50 a Barrel Was Selling Last Week in Bal
 timore for $6.25.

Are staple groceries higher. and does 1t cost more to live in Birmingham than in other cities? This question caused much lively discussion yester- day as it was presented to various per sons by an Age Herald representative. The grocers answer no" with em- phasis. A great many people who have lived in other places were equally as positive with the reply, "yes.' It real ly seems to be purely matter of opinion, although one or the other must be right.
 It has been widely and repeatedly stated that Birmingham is a city of high prices. Is it this, or is 1t simply true that Birmingham is a town of high living? This is also still mat ter of conjecture as the Interrogation is answered both ways by the various persons who have expressed them selves
 The question of the cost of living has been a live sub ject for some time. The working man has been complain ing continually, in fact every class has at one time or another had something to say about the high prices
 The grocers say they are powerless.
 Cannot Buy It for Y Gents.
 Tt was recently stated editoriallv through one of the papers that break fast bacon sold for 30 cents a pound in Birmingham, while in other places 1t sold for from 10 to 1T cents" said
  yesterday This is not so. There is not a grocer in Birmingham who can buy any of the standard brands of ba con anywhere at a wholesale price of IF cents, much less a person buy it at retail at that price.
 With reference to staple grocers have simply to say. that there is no difference in the price of the standard brands of goods over the country. Of course there are a great many brands of everything, some of them inferior and cheaper, but 1t is my observation that the people of this city demand es a general rule the best of everything. They are naturally high livers and of course 1t costs more to live on the best.
 Tt has also been intimated that the Retail Grocers' association fixes the price at which practically everything shall be sold in Birmingham Somebody has been misinformed or else knows nothing of what they say. The asso- citation. was organized to protect the accounts of the grocers and it has never been used for another purpose.
 Make Fair Profit.
 When approached on the subject, Mark A. Myatt of Fowlkes & Myatt said: "The grocers of Birmingham make fair profit on the goods tn ey sell, and only fair profit The wh ole sale market quotations are printed in the papers every day, and the people by looking at them certainly know whether they are being robbed or not. It seems to me that if there is anybody who is uncovered so that he cannot run his profits up at pleasure it Is the gro cer.
 Groceries are not higher in Brming- ham than in other places. If the prices are abnormal the fault is higher than the retailer. It is fact that there are five men in the United States, the heads of the controlling concerns, who can get together around a mahogany table and fix the price of practically everything that goes on mans table.
 "The retailer is powerless to remedy the high prices. It is certain that at the present prices the man in the grocery bus mess is making no abnormal profit, and for one to jump on him and charge him with robbery it is indeed an injustice"
 Flour as an Example.
 It is not disputed that everything in the staple line has gone up in the last few years in Birmingham. There is reason probably it is the action of the men wh control the output and possibly the re- sponsiblity lies elsewhere.
 Pillsburys four one of the best pateni Hours, retails in Birmingham today at s7.50 per barrel. In Baltimore it sold last week for sG.25 Lard has recently been re- duced in price from 15 to 121a cents a pound. This price is generally uniform. Breakfast bacon is quoted here at 271a ] to 30 cents a pound. while in St. Louis lne brands sell for 20 cents & pound. These quotations are only few that l have come to notice through advertise l ments in papers from other cities. Wheth- ! CT there is a great difference in prices | here and elsewhere can only be settled by | a most careful investigation, apparently. l With the frank and earnest statements of i the grocers-many of whom say they are | barely struggling along-on one slde ana | the claims of the greater majority of the | people who buy their goods on the other, l matters are little uncertain. Whether staples cost more here than | elsewhere or not, however everything is | apparently rising in value. Fresh meats | lere have almost gone beyond the reach | of the day laborer. and there is great quantity of meat here that is home which should not be very | nigh. If it were meats and groceries ilone the small-salaried man might save honey but everything comes high.
 Birmingham is prosperous said one | nan yesterday, but it appears that the merchants run their scale of prices &C., ording to the prosperity of the city, and here is no consolation for the poor man ven in good times"
 
 Southern Railway, the only | C. l IL