Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-27
IS THERE ACROCERS' TRUST?
Mr.. Ultimate Consumer 0pines Small
Merchant is Doing Him.
PERISH THE THOUGHT, FISCHER
But Not Even That solemn Assurance
Satisfies the Vulgar Suspicious
of Mr.. U. Co Impressed by
Uniformity In Prices.

IT'S a fright the way they are getting to
u.s." remarked Mr.. Ultimate Consumer,
at the breakfast table, transferring his
gaze from the morning paper to a plate Of
4O-cent eggs, which he proceeded to season
with some g-cent butter. THE trusts, ]
mean. the grub trust"
Mrs. U. c. INDUCED herself In another
cup OF mocha and said nothing. while her
husband warmed up to the subject.
why, II seems TO be combine all the
way around, no way to beat IT, no way to
escape. Look at those Lima bean growers
out there in California. They have taken
a bunch from the meat strikers and have
proceeded TO hold up the bean crop Vntil
the hungry mar will have TO spend on
beans what he saves on beef.
Il see that Mrs. Frederick Nathan, vice
president of the National Consumers
league, rises to remark that there seems
to be something doing among the retailers
in New York. Kind Of a friendly agree
ment about so much per pound and per
dozen and that sort OF thing"
He Tries An Experiment.
The idea seemed to stick so Mr.. Con-
sumner took an idle hour at his downtown
office 20 do some Original Investigating.
A1A RAAkAA1 AaAAA w 6A'NtA' 80 ~, SNNAa
ing districts gained for him the fact that
sugar could be had at the rate of sixteen
pounds for 81 and here and there at seven
teen poHnds for the same price. The
grocerqmen in the smaller stores in the
residence district seemed to nave a won
derful uniformity Of opinion.
Funny about that he remarked, turn
ing his attention to a list OF downtown
grocers and department stores. Here the
price Of sugar varied from eighteen to
nineteen pounds for 81.
yes, we make a margin OF profit selling
II at nineteen pounds" admitted the down
town grocery folks. 1T isn't a big profit,
but 1t isn't. a loss, elther."
The same experiment was tried with q
certain high grade OF navel oranges. Down
town at the larger stores the price was 30
cents a dozen. while the little dealers
asked from IS to so cents.
NO, SIR" most emphatically exclaimed
Harry Fischer, secretary and attorney fot
the Omaha Retail Grocers' and Butchers
association, I'VE don't discuss matters Of
prices. Why, a member of the association
can give away his goods II he wants to.
CUP to date none has wanted to-
Yes, They Jumped on Soap.
you can get three or four men into an
agreement and they will stick to 1t, but a
hundred or two grocers-never. Somebody
would always be jumping the traces.
They're hard to hold together on anything
like that"
This latter statement was confirmed by
a former member Of the association who
remarked that a few years ago they used
to have a lot Of trouble holding together on
the matter of laundry soap.
This same soap today is selling down
town at seven and eight bars for a quar-
ter, while the "others'-those further from
the city-make a practically uniform price
Of six bars for r. quarter. These latter. 1t
so happens, are members of Mr.. Fischer's
association.
The retail grocers organized to cut out
bad credits" explained Mr. Fischer.
There used to be lots Of failures among
the grocers, but they are not failing any
more"
But. howsoever, Mr.. Ultimate Consumer
can't get It out of his head that with the
big downtown grocers consistently under
selling the outlying stores that have the
choicest patronage and evidently a uni
form scale of prices, there may be such a
Trims in Omaha as a Retailers Trust, Of
which the big fellows are not members.
Good Thing to Hide Behind.
And. incidentally" observes Mr.. U. c.,
'if this is a fact, the clamor against the
Meat and Storage House Trust affords a
good means of refuge for the local COM
bine."
Mrs. F. ]. Burnett, head of the house,
hold economics department of the Woman's
Club. has tried a little experiment in buy
ing from the original producers, which she
discusses with some merriment.
THE farmers about Omaha seem to be
using the telephone TO great ~advantage,r
she remarked. "I'd like to see one who
was foolish enough to sell his goods for
less than the retailer is getting for the
same stuff. / have observed that the
farmer is pretty well informed about what
he can get for his stuff"