Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-01-01
NO MORE FREE DELIVERY
This Service win Cost You Money, as
VIII Also a Credit Account at a
StOre-LOwer Margins of Profit to
Rule.

Beginning next Wednesday morning
the cash and carry system will go in
TO effect in this city and whether YOU
buy cake of yeast or sack of flour
and have it delivered you will have
to pay an additional fee for this ser
vice. If you have it charged you will
pay another fee.
The bulk of all deliveries from that
day on will be made by the Wausau
Service company, which has been du-
ly organized and which will be con-
Quoted under the direction of George
Schreier, who is at present working
out the details in an effort to pro-
vide satisfactory delivery of goods
from stores at minimum price.
Just how many rigs Will be re-
quired to cover the city properly and
afford satisfactory service is a prob
lem that can only be solved by actual
experience, and for the present the
delivery rigs of all those merchants
who have subscribed to this service
VIII be temporarily turned over to the
new company and later on will be
supplanted by uniform rigs.
Under the new system there will
be but two deliveries day, one at
10 o'clock in the forenoon and one at
4 O'Clock in the afternoon. Merchants
VIII put up their orders and so pile
them that each deliverman will be
able to come and get his allotment.
For instance the deliverman for any
given district will visit all the stores
and pick up all goods intended for his
district, and the others will do the
same.
A schedule of charges, to be paid
by the customers, has'practicalIy been
decided upon. The fee for a deliv-
cry of 25 pounds or less will be 5
cents; for more than 25 pounds and
less than so pounds it will be 10
cents; from so to 11O pounds, Is
ceIts; for each 100 pounds or frac-
tisn in excess of 11O pounds, an addi-
tional charge of cents will be made.
TWenty-seVen merchants, grocers,
bakers and butchers, have become
members of the service company.
which for the present will have its
headquarters in the old Menier barn
on jackson street. 1t is thought that
as soon as the organization has
WOrked* out definite plan of deliv-
cry and OF charges and has demon
strated its practicability, that many
others who are holding off now, will
be glad to join in.
There seems to be a little misun-
derstandng in regard to the matter
OF delivery and credit service charges.
and some are under the impression
that only those merchants who are
members of the service company will
make charges for delivery, while those
who retain their delivery wagons can
deliver free or charge any price they
desire. AS a matter of fact whether
merchant is a member of the asso-
citation or not, he will be required to
. make the same delivery charges, and
the same charges for credit service.
This latter will amount to two cents
on the dollar, or fraction of a dollar
at the time of settlement. These
charges have been ordered by the
Food Administration and must be OBJ
served by all merchants.
In this connection it might be well
to state that there is some mfsun-
derstanding both by merchants and
the general public in reference to the
matter of food price control. Some
OF the consumers believe that the
prices are too high and that when you
add to this a delivery and credit SER
vice fee the consumer is being gouged.
Some of the merchants appear to
think, and in some instances have so
informed their customers, that they
are expected to get the full prices
as promulgated by the Food Admin
istration. This is wrong. The prices
as published are maximum prices. No
merchant is allowed to charge more.
If he has bought in such a way that
he can sell cheaper and still make
fair margin of profit he is expected
to do so. He is not allowed to take
one or two articles and sell them be-
low cost plus a fair margin merely
for leaders. Again the fact is recog-
nized that as the merchant is relieved
OF delivery charges and receives an
interest on his book accounts, he is
in a position to sell cheaper than he
could before that is on a smaller
margin of profit, and there is abso-
lutely no objection to his so doing.
Later on, these maximum prices will
be reduced to a figure that will per-
nit of no discretion in the matter of
selling below them, but for the pres
ent they are purposely put high
enough to admit of their being re-
duced and still yielding a fair mar
gin or profit.