The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-13
TEE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By FREDERIC J.~HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. @.
MARKET STRATEGY.
Ways to Get More for Your MOI

MARKET STRATEGY.
Ways to Get More for Your Money.
Washington, D. c., Dec. 10.-Optim-
istically speaking, the high price of
food has performed one great service
to the consumer. 1t has set his Ameri-
can ingenuity to work inventing means
to combat it. During the past year he
has dabbled and experimental with
many things, including scientific
meatless days; cooperation and caior-
les; indigestion, and the delivery of
his own groceries. All of which have
taught him a thing or two.
The American consumer knows
more about food today than he ever
did before. He knows, for example,
that, although he belongs to the flesh
eating order of northumberland
Shaw to the contrary Notwithstanding
he will survive meatless day.
Physicians indeed, no longer afraid of
being blacklisted by the corner grocer.
have come right out with the brutal
statement that Americans eat too
much meat. The consumer also
knows that death does not follow
sugar famine He can eat oleomar-
gerine in the place of butter if the
latter costs too much; he can skimp
on sweet potatoes in a pinch, and he
can cultivate taste for left-overs.
But it can't be said that he enjoys
doing it.
Thus, recently, the consumer has
been studying the marketing game.
The question with him as yet is not
how many of his favorite dishes he
can do without, but by what strategic
maneuvers can he buy them at a lower
cost? One method reSorted to by con-
sumers in all sections of the country
during the past year is cooperative
buying, which eliminates the retailers
profit. In a small town in New York
state, for instance, six women have
formed a cooperative club for the
purpose of buying wholesale groceries.
One woman buys a barrel of flour and
divides it among the other members
of the club. The next woman buys
twelve dozen eggs from a farmer at a
minimum cost and distributes those
among the other women. The third
woman buys g. case of soup; the
fourth woman a barrel of sugar; the
fifth woman a barrel of apples, and
the sixth woman six hams direct from
a pork products house.
Using Marketing Skill.
The sixth woman, of course, does
not always buy hams. Sometimes her
purchase is canned goods or grape
fruit or oranges. The fifth woman also
buys a variety of products voted for
by the other club members, and so
does the fourth woman, since the six
families do not use a barrel of sugar a
month.
Every two weeks this club holds a
business meeting. Each brings with
her a small book The members dis
cuss the supplies they will need for
the next two weeks, consulting two
catalogs from mail order firms and
the price lists from various wholesale
dealers. They compare these with the
prevailing retail prices. One woman
suggests, for instance, that one house
is offering a special reduction on
thirty pounds of butter that will save
each member a dollar on the retail
price. A vote is taken; all the women
are in favor of buying the butter, and
each puts her share of the expenses
in the first woman's bank. The next
suggestion may deal with a great OPP
portunity in canned peaches, or tur-
nips, or stuffed olives. Again vote
is taken, the individual contributions
placed in one vToman's bank, and so
on until every woman has some pur-
and the soup are bought regularly
every month.
When the supplies arrive they are
delivered at the houses of the women
who bought them, and the other MEM
bers come and get their shares. That
is, all the women go to Mrs. Jones to
get their flour, to Mrs. Smith for their
eggs, and to Mrs. Brown for their
soup.
This particular cooperative club
las been extremely successful until
the past few mont.-S when shipments
have been so delayed that such buy
ing was no longer practical. The
women had all known each other
since they were children; they were
to be relied upon when it came to the
matter of paying bills, and each mem
Der had an equal share in the re-
sponsibility.
COOPERATIVE Buying Clubs.
Unfortunately, the same thing can
not be said of all cooperative buying
clubs. There is no doubt but that
great reduction may be accomplished
in buying food in large quantities, but
it is usually difficult to get the CO.
operation systematized. In this club
the members paid in advance for
their supplies. Most people are I'M
willing to do that. Then, too, every
woman had to go after her share if
she wanted it. In most clubs the
person who buys the food distributes
it or else forgets to, and whel he
does the people do not have the right
change, so that he must either be sus-
picious and carry it home again. or
leave it and run the risk of being an
unwilling philanthropist.
Somebody is usually-to use a fasci-
mating idiom-the goat. The club gen.
orally .disbands with somebody with
a large supply of material on hand
which he can never use. with his bank
account, instead of the high cost of
living, reduced. with a penal sentence
hanging over his head for boarding,
and on the verge of a nervous break
down.
Such dramatic instances are not
rare. They occur in epidemics. The
rare cooperative club is one which
is run on an unfrie IDLY business basis,
with everybody doing paving for and
getting his share Yet co-oDerative
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