The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-20
he merchant, and has talked with many

the merchant, and has talked with many Of the latter personally She feels safe, therefore. in pronouncing her scheme authoritative.
 Mrs. Orr has varied her housekeepirg g experiences, transferring her domestic activies every summer from Highland avenue to Mentone. where she has a country home in the latter place she has watched the scale of rural prices not altogether from the urban view point, for at Mentone she is a farmer as well as summer resident. Being a woman of broad interests and many activities, as she has been through many years of prominence in clubdom and civic affairs. her practical suggestion to the housekeepers of Birmin gham cannot fail to carry weight.
 The letter follows
 "To the Housekeepers of Birmin gharn
 Investigations covering nearly two years have convinced me that prices of meat and groceries are unnecessarily high in Birmingham. Dry goods, shoes and ready to wear articles I have found reasonable in price and I will attempt to IOTGSIdll CIliltlSui ol lnlS unu- ing by saying that the variety of these articles for sale makes it possible to bring your expenditures within your means.
 Not so with groceries and meats. There is little variety and we must eat. We may wear our last years hats, but
 today must have its food supply. Arc lai in a
 ducer, 1 was amazed at the prices paid
 the seller and charged the housewife, and when I was offered 70 cents for Irish potatoes on Morris avenue the
 same day that my friends were paying
 the retail grocefs s1 40, I felt that re- | tail grocers in Birmingham were on the way to become milionaires by the short route
 | Further researches into the cost of | doing a grocery business in Birming- ham have assuaged any grief at the get
 rich quick methods of my grocer, and
 l now believe that if he cannot mako a 30 or S5 per cent profit on all sales he must lose out, and make no profit on the money invested in his bus 1 mess.
 | Nothing more wasteful and extrava- Gant goes on in Birmingham than the
 retail grocers' way of doing business. | These methods are not by choice, but
 are forced on him by his customers. During this investigation I found that
 one we'll known family had given i've 1 orders that morning-all rush orders. l The grocer told me he could not afford
 to offend an influential customer oy
 keeping those goods for the regular
 delivery. A member of the committee of the Civic league appointed to con sider this question, detected a lady Tn making six orders to the gro cery store in one day--almost instance. the grocers told the Civic
 league lady that the other lady would
 pay for the trouble she had given him. But as this pay was to be the price
 she paid for groceries and not a stated price for extra delivery service 1t Is
 much more probable that all other GUS
 toners paid their share,
 This system is all wrong. None but l the strongest firms can afford to of
 fend those influential customers by
 laying down the law on special deliv- cries. The reform must come from q i combination of customers Such a com ! bi1ation we hope to form from those | housekeepers who are unwilling to pay
 for their neighbors' lax methods of do- | Ing business, who are Willing to bind themselves to observe certain moderate
 rules about deliveries, pay cash, or it's 1 equivalent.
 l such methods can, believe. without ] further barley. rednce the cost of gro- ceries 10 per cent to the members of it. There arc three plans for such a combination--one which seems the sim plest, and is in use in a great many cities. is to form Q branch of the Na-