The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-02-10
Cutting The Cost Of Living How Twenty-seven Families Saved in Daily Household Expense.-Ce-operative Store in New York
 Tenement
ley B. Burritt, New York Association For Improyi
 the Condition of the Poor.

Tenement.

If twenty-seven families living in one big tenement house buy their food supplies co-operatively. the food cost for each family can be reduced from $1.30 to 93 cents a day. This is the. result of inte~esting{ plan which has been in operation in New York City for more than a year.
 The plan is part of an undertaking toscare for and cure ruberculous fam. flies in the midst of city congestion
 Under the auspices of the Assocl- ation for Improving the Condi ton of the Poor home hospitaP' was estab-a slished in model tenements built by Mrs. W. K Vanderbilt The twenty- seven families included 1855 indiVid-i
 In its efforts to keep the cost Of
 maintenance as low as possible, for
 the purpose Of experimenting in CO., operative buying, the association es- tablished store in one of the two- and in another operated diet kitchen ! to prepare meals for families fin which the mother is either tooS i'll to work or is obliged to be at work daily away from the hospital.
 The store carries constantly regu- lar supply of staple food products and
 household supplies, which are plr-
 chased at wholesale and sold Sto the families at cost prices. The families
 inform the .superintendent-at night
 as to the variety and amount of meat and vegetables they need for the next day, and the purchase is made the
 following morning. In this way the
 families receive the benefit Of whole
 sale buying and there Is no waste When the store was started conva- lescent patients sold the food, but la ter it was found advisable to place in r7<a1. that the families might receive proper | instruction in the selection Of foods Each family is permitted to purchase as large a variety and as much of , each kind Of food as it needs a In only one instance has 1t been neces-
 sary to advise family to be more economical whereas 1t vas found nec- isessary to urge several families to buy more than they had ordered In this Way~its has been possible to regulate the quality, quantity and variety or 1 food used.
 Tn December visits were made to the better class grocery and delica- l tessen stores and meat shops in the vicinity Of the hospital for the pur- pose of comparing quotations on meats l and foodstuffs that are sold in the hospital store.
 It was ascertained that by purchas- ing and selling at wholesale prices, l making no charge for overhead ex- penses it would have cost the families an average of 40 per cent more had l they continued to purchase from 1 nefghboring stores The establish ment of the hospital store, therefore,
 has effected an actual saving of about i 29 per cent.
 The monthly sales have averaged
 $369.s4 The rent of the store apart ment has been $1O.8S month, and the
 incidental expense, including ice, pa- per bags, twine, etc, nave been ap- | proximately $5.Oo a month The cost | of supervision plus overhead charges, It. is estimated. would amount to ap- groximately 10 per cent of the total sales If the families had had to pay