Omaha daily bee., 1911-06-21
OMAHA ICE FOR FORTY CENTS
Small Peddlsrs Are Selling for Low
Prices Everywhere.
INTIMATE THAT PRICE CHANGES
For some Customers IL is Forty,
60 Others &c is Fifty--De-
PendIns upon COM
petition.

Fifty cent ice 10 so cent Ice. but when
IL Is necessary, the one price standard
which the larger companies took pride IN
establishing in the earlier part Of the sea
son. IL subserved to the exigencies OF COM
petition. Then the consumer gets his Ice
for 70 cents.
. This statement in substance was made
by three Ice dealers yesterday They are
Of the type which is known as the in
dependents" or free lances." With one
or two teams and wagon they buy
from the larger companies and then sell
over routes where they have driven wedges
in the trade OF the big ice corporations.
The activities Of this class OF dealers
are confined in the most part TO the north
and northwest part OF the city.
A reporter for The Bee asked for the
manager at the Weir City Coal and Ice
company 1lO4 Davenport. The manager OF
the company was not in, but a young
woman clerk was willing to inform one
on anything pertaining to prices.
you see we get 90 cents in many places.
but some OF the other companies. like the
Omaha Ice and Cold Storage company. seil
for 40 cents a hundred where a consumer
buys 100 pounds at a time OF course IL
Ia necessary TO sell for 10 cents when this
kind OF competition Is to be met, and II Il
is in 100 pound lots that a person buys,
then It is 10 cents here, The company has
to meet someone else's price to keep the
customers.
supply and Price.
mo, / don't know anything about the
supply, or why the price is supposed 10 be
30 cents. know what they are charging,
however, and that this company has to
charge accordingly, Why, just last night
we had TO let a regular customer have his
ice for 40 cents because some other COM
pany had gone In there and offered 70 sell
It for that"
r. F. slyter, 1919 Webster street was not
at home. But Mrs. Slyter said 1.-THE boys"
made fair money" selling at 10 cents. She
referred to her husband and a helper. who
then we're out with their Ice delivery
wagon
When the other companies put the
price up to 30 cents, the boys just kept on
selling at the old figure" said Mrs. Slyter.
There were some threats that they would
not be able to get Ice any more II they
kept up at that price, but so far they
have not been stopped from buying.
i guess from what the boys say that
In many places the other companies and
Independents are cutting the price where
they stand chance OF losing a customer"
Mrs. Slyter did not know where her
husband bought the Ice which he peddIes.
surest Ting, Yeh Know.
DO you deliver7" was asked n man
driving a canvas topped wagon with the
one word Ice" painted on the cover.
He pulled his two scrawny horses I'D.
Yep"
Deliver It any placer"
Anywhere"
'Hanscom park7"
Nope. Too far out"
What do YOU charge" he was asked
further.
Say. guy. what y'ouse given us. A
gink doesn't come from Hanscon nark
to Twenty-fourth and Burdette 10 buy lea
know yuh. Youse one OF them guys from
tho company, that's what y'are. Oh. yes.
~ wise guy. I sell for fifty cents a
hunderd. Does that suit your Go back
and tell them that. My name? What
tells It to yuh. Giddap."
And he drove on.
g. r. sorensen thought the big companies
were trying to drive the little dealers out
OF business Last year. Sorensen said, he
bought the supply which he peddles FOR
10 cents a hundred pound. This year he
pays Is cents for his supply.
Small Dealers Give Full weirbt.
George Harmon refined UP his horse AZ
watering trough, and then wanted 20
know how much Ice the interrogator used
each day.
Forty cents Is my price, and I deliver 4,
to you full weight" he observed. "No.
many of the companies claim to be selling
for 10 cents, but know they are letting
some people have ice for 10 cents a hundred.
or course, II could get 80 cents a hundred
would charge It. But have to keep the
price to keep my customers or some one
Will come along and cut under me-
NO. there are not so many persons whom
these other fellows sell to for 10 cents
but when a fellow has a good bunch OF
customers that is when he has to look for
the price cutting. That lie why some of us
charge only 10 cents. 1 make fair money
out OF 1t at that price, and have no kick
coming. even though the company where
buy did raise the price cents when
this season opened. Care for some 4O-cent
Ice? All right Goodbye"
A driver for the Gate City Ice company
said that 50 cents was the minimum with
his company, and that where there was
fNeent competition they did not mix in"
Big Dealers Deny Cutting.
II. A. Colvin, general manager Of the
Omaha Ice company, Saturday stated that
his company did not cut prices and that
one price was charged 10 everybody in the
domestic trade, whether twenty-five or 100
pounds were bought at a time.
one car OF Ice a day is being shipped
into Omaha from Clear lake near Mason
City, la. Statements made by dealers
Saturday were TO the effect that the city
Is dependent upon shipments from the
outside for its daily ice supply.
The average shipment in these cars IA
thirty tons. Under normal conditions IL
takes In the neighborhood Of 425OoO tons
OF Ice TO supply the city during the hot