The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-09
CORNER GROCERY STORE FEARS
 C0NS0L LIDATION
"Where Would We Be With l, Food Department Stores?"
 They Ask
II, ,OOO Object to Scheme Meat Shops and Fish Men Stirred Also By Report of Food Commission.

New York, Aug. 9.-The conclusion reached by the State Food Investigat- ing Commissions committee on mar ket prices and costs that wholesalers, retailers and private organizations should move toward the development of the large retail unit or food de- pertinent store as one of the means of reducing the high cost of living IS not pleasing to the average corner grocery store proprietor, and there are Il, 900 of himin Greater New York.
 The committee said in it's recent report of it's investigations in this city and other municipalities in the State that the food department store, buy ing direct, receiving direct and selling direct, was the best of the distributing agencies in point of efficiency. mini mum of waste,. satisfactory distribu- ton and. due rewards for management and capital. The committee said II had been suggested, that producers ana consumers organize a corporation to control and manage a system or such markets and that the preliminary financing might be undertaken by the State.
 'I'd like to know where we would be- if a chain of grocery stores and food department stores became all the rage?" asked one indignant corner store man. We would go out of busl- ness. That's all there would be to it, None of us is making any real mon ey now as the result of the bad habit our customers are getting into of buy ing their supplies direct from these stores. They are crowding us to the wall, and what would happen ff the municipality or State took notion into it's head of going into the gro cery business on a gigantic scale IS $! something I don't like to think about.
 "Of course the corner store grocer would go out of business" said a rep resentative of one of the kind of stores that the markets investigators favor, If such a scheme could be put in op- eration, but everything is being con solidated nowadays and in time the corner grocer will have to go.
 A food department store handles al- most all kinds of foodstuffs, including meats, and the retail butcher. is feel ing the effects of the enormous ann- ount of steaks, roasts and other things that are being daily sold over the meat block on the 'steenth floor of the up to date markets. There are more than 6,000 retail meat shops in this city, and their owners, 1t Is said, are feeling very anxious about the suc- cess of the new fangled retail butch CTS
 The pushcart man-he numbers be- tween 4,OO0 and 5000 in the food sup ply business-iss also disturbed over the prospects of a monopoly of the food supply trade by the food depart ment stores.
 Washington Market butchers say that the prospects indicate that there will be no reduction in the price of beef this summer.& 1t is now so high that many housewives pass the stands with their eyes looking the other way. They go to the fish stands to get a substitute for meat and when they ask questions about prices they walk straight out of the market and the family gets beans or something else for supper.
 The raising of the retail price of eggs two cents has also given the housekeeper something to think about and thefegg dealers are putting all the blame on the hen. They say that at this time of the year she is beginning to attend strictly to the business of moulting and consequently she hasn't time to provide material for omelets and other things.