Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-09-21

lnlun OF undnCldl EFFORT. 1Hdts pei
haps, is one thing that makes ne
feel 50 bad when 1 know, away down
in my heart, that haven't done the
very best that might be done with my
household money.
THE worst obstacle I find in dis
pensing my household funds intelli-
gently is the apparent impossibility
of really intelligent marketing in At
lanta.
Good Food Hard to Find.
81 do not think the quality OF food
sold in Atlanta always is all that il
should be. Now, l do not mean by
that that think it is not possible 10
obtain the very best Of food in At
lanta-for think 1t is-but what do
mean is that ii is next to impossible
for the average marketer, which | am
to locate the best that may be hal
for given sum.
Take the average display of food
stuffs in the average Atlanta mar
ket and grocery store. Is 1t up 10
high water mark? l think not. 1t
maybe that there has been scarcity
of good, plump, sound tomatoes, for
instance, this year. but have not seen
it so stated anywhere. Yet it is
fact that nowhere in Atlanta, with
perhaps an occasional exception, has
il been possible to see the best Of
them on display this season.
Truck gardening seems to have be-
come lost art around and about At
lanta. In the remoter residential sec
tions wagons fresh from the farms
visit households occasionally, and
sweet tender vegetables, fresh eggs
country butter and the like may BE
had-but the total sum of this sort Of
shopping in Atlanta is relatively notn-
ing.
Small Store; Big Price.
'1f a housekeeper has to pay even
the downtown price for produce thus
acquired, which she doesn't, she has
saved money, nevertheless, for she
has obtained a more wholesome
article of diet more often than not,
and she has received it fresh from
the farm besides saving the time
and carfare of a rtip downtown.
she depends upon the neighbor
hood grocery store for nothing much
more than the small necessities, for
experience has taught her that she
can not expect much more in that
quarter. She realizes that the small
grocery of the neighborhood must
charge a maximum price in order
to live at all. She has no possible
quarrel with the neighborhood gro
cery-she merely knows it is not a
to make her pennies stretch very tar
Il can tell you what I would LIKE
to do about it, and what | SHOULD
BE able to do about, and the which
if I could do about it, could save
myself a pretty sum every month
and get a better quality of food in
my home, moreover!
'Tf we had in Atlanta a big Center
market-or better still, a Center,
Northern and a Southern market
could go there and get the best OF
everything the markets afford, and
get It exactly when, how and after
whatever fashion / desired.
"In one of these city markets II is
possible to shop with a maximum of
result, and at a tremendous saving OF
time and nerve tissue, moreover.
Articles offered for sale in one of
these markets necessarily are of the
best quality (fOr the money asked
to be obtained AS kissing goes by
favor. so patronage in big market
where contrasts in displays are i'm
mediately observable, goes to the
most deserving.
IF Marketman A in a big market
offers me tomatoes at so much Per
dozen or per pound, he must make
me the offer in the full and steady
ing knowledge that right next door 10
him, in the neighboring stall, Market
man B also has tomatoes for sale.
Whichever has the best tomatoes for
the price gets my coin!
"A shopper can not very well con-
trast the wares of Groceryman A, on
this corner, and Groceryman B, on
yonder corner, two or three blocks
away, for one can not carry things
of that sort in ones head. But when
they are in a big market, side by
each as the saying goes, one can tell
mighty quick which is which!
SaIesmanship Inspired.
"A city market inspires and
prompts statesmen to offer only the
best of everything for the price ask
edit makes It a necessity that the
marketman offer a maximum of ma
terial for a minimum of charge.
Moreover. what he may lose in mar
gin of profit by reason of this change
as compared with his present meth
DDS of selling his goods-he more
than makes up in the increased vol
ume of business he does. He has
the additional satisfaction, too, OF a
perfectly pleased patronage, without
any loss whatever in the total of
money he makes.
1T is astonishing to me that At
lanta has no city market. There is
hardly a city of its size in the ma
ton that has not two or more-and,
as a matter of fact, 1 know of many
much smaller cities that have city
markets to make glad the hearts of
housekeepers.
There must be a mistaken idea
somewhere as to the value Of city
market, or Atlanta long ago would
have had one or more.
There is another thing in favor of
the city market, and any physician
will affirm this statement-it is pos
sible to enforce sanitary regulations
therein with far less expense and far
bigger results than it is to enforce
them in scattered markets, small and
managed by dealers unmindful of the
great part sanitation plays nowadays
In the matter of conserving health
and happiness among the people.
Seldom, if ever, are bad odors en-
countered in city markets-the dealer
who manages a stall that fails to come |
up to every reasonable sanitary regu-
lation is hopelessly outclassed by his !
neighbor who does-and whose eff |
forts may be plainly seen and imme-
diately Contrasted
Il honestly believe that l can take |
a dollar bill into a well-regulated city !
market and make it go as far as a |
dollar and a quarter now goes-and If |
l could do that in Atlanta ] could |
solve ma RI of NV rrobIeTO Of the high !