Atlanta Georgian., 1914-03-01
Family Purse Gets PIumper With
Discontinue Of Enemy-Eggs,
Butter and Meats All Becoming
Cheaper as Season Changes.
New Competition Among Dealers
Also Credited With Reducing
Price of Foodstuffs-Average
Cut Is Estimated at 0ne-third.

II. c. O'Living, the well-known old
nest who intrudes on every feast, has
touch of spring fever and is not
his old self. He still gets round, but
he's less of a nuisance than he has
been for long while.
The butcher. the baker, the candle
stick maker, these gentlemen popu-
larry credited with maintaining the
unwelcome guest of the Atlanta
households, are neglecting him some
what. They've cut down his allow
anee. so 1t seems, and that other
mlch-abused person, Family Pocket
book, long so attenuated, is taking on
flesh with discontinue of his enemy,
and may, if things continue as they
are going, become comfortably plump.
In housewifely phrase, Things are
cheaper
Take eggs, for example, as most
of US do for breakfast. Within mem
ory-very recent, very vivid memory
eggs were 48 and so cents a dozen.
For proof, see the grocery slips of
few weeks back which are stuck on
the spike in the kitchen. Now eggs
cost "a cents. retail--a sheer drop Of
half in their price.
Butter-a little while ago it cost
almost as much as the gold it looks
tke-40 cents and more Now, un-
fortunately at the decline Of the bat
ter cake season. it costs "a to So
cents per pound.
Meats Cheaper.
Other things are as much affected
almost all the meats, for instance.
The market men declare that it is
all because spring has come; cheap
ening of prices with spring. The
hens catch the joyous spirit, and ac-
commodatingly produce more eggs.
The small farmers bring eggs and
chickens to town, and the grocers,
who might desire very much to hold
up the prices, are forced to relent
because of the pressure of this COM
petition
And when eggs, butter and fresh
vegetables are to be had for the ask
MS bllt EllCCl pll Nilt pllNc VI AiAItht .
is startling. Thus the dealers eX-
plain the drop in meats. Cheap eggs
make cheaper meat; fresh vegetables
make cheaper meat. And spring
brings them all.
And then, there is another reason
for the lower cost of living. accord
ing to the story that the retail gro
cerymen tell. 1t seems that a keen
spirit of competition has arisen be-
tween the grocers themselves. fos-
tered mainly by an aggressive bunch
OF storekeepers who call themselves
cash grocers.
Cash Means Lower Prices.
Nothing short of blood relationship
or blackmail could get rou a line OF
credit with these cash" grocers, and
sustaining no loss nor delays be-
cause of forgetful credit customers,
they proceed to cut that margin of
profit-and- loss from their prices, in
The effort to attract trade. Naturally.
everybody cuts, at that, although
pr1ces are never uniform.
Anyhow, the competition between
narketmen and grocerymen is keener
1owadays than it has ever been be-
'ore, and it is for this reason and
because of the fact that spring with
Is freshening markets, always lowers
prices, that prices are lower, by one
.hird at least, than they were in the
dead Of winter.
Occasional cold flurries and bad
weather flurries in the last two weeks
nave sent the prices up a little but
only temporarily. With the cold
snaps. the task of marketing becomes
more difficult, and the consumer must
pay more. And with the cold snaps.
too the prices in the big distributing
centers actually rise: SO that when
ever the weather man predicts a
freeze or frost from now on, the head
OF the family must expect TO pay more
Tor his eggs. But that condition, he
VIII have the satisfaction Of knowing.
VIII last only so long as the cold
weather remains.