Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-09
WilIthe Public Buy Cheaper?
(BY FREDERIC J. HASkIN).
lSnacial COrrespondenca of The Argusl.

New York Oct ct has been conclusively
shown thai the public will buy dear-almost
Incredibly dear It buys just much at hiSA
T.: ;ccs it used to buy at low prices. 1t
cheerfully pays a dime Cor 1-cent apple pros
yided there is a fruit-stacd man to polish 1t
on a somewhat dirty apron and put 1t IN a
paper bag. 1t will pay a weeks wages Tor a
pair of shoes, provided there is an accommo-
dating clerk with whom to discuss the ldlosyn-
craoies of its feet, and delivery service TO
carry the shoes home for it.
But will the public buy cheap? That is,
will it take any trouble forego any con-
venience to get the necessities of life for less
money? Is it enough in earnest about reducing
the cost Of living to make personal enort
TO reduce it? Or does it really enjoy Its own
extravaganza, admire the astute prohteers who
fleece it, and howl about the high cost OF liV-
ing merely from ingrained habit OF bowling ?
These may sound like foolish questions. but
consider the sale of army food. The attempt
to sell food through the postof1ce department
for about 90 per cent less than 1t could be
bought in the retail stores, was, as everyone
knows, failure. After several weeks OF per
sistent advertisement, most Of the 1000 IN
most Of the .cities remained unsold. Various
reasons were assigned for the failure Per
haps the most plausible was that the food was
in relatively large quantities, while most peo-
pie have only a little money to spend at a
time on food. The average workman spends
his wages every Saturday for a weeks supply
Of food. He cannot buy six pounds OF bacon
because, if he did. he could buy no bread.
club together to buy in quantities.
"Oh. yes; We never thought Of that" some
assented feebly.- A few went so far as to act
upon the suggestion. But it was not acted
upon generally. Most Of the army food still
remained unsold.
Various other reasons were given why the
army food was not taken Some housewives
said II was not Of good enough quality for
their fastidious spOuses.
Archibald simply won't eat that army ba-
con-" said one young married woman. He
likes the kind that comes all sliced up In
little glass jar"
And yet the army bacon is good bacon, and
Archibald probably is the kind of husband who
bowls like a wolf every time the wife hands
him grocery bill
Some held off because they were suspicious
They remembered that during the Spanish
American war the army meat was tainted. The
fact that there never word about tainted
meat during this war made no difference to
them. Army meat and ptomaine poisoning ar'
ineXtricably and forever associated in theis
minds.
But none of these reasons was the main
reason why the food did not sell through the
postof.ces. The main reason was that people
are not used to buying in that way, and they
do not feel strongly enough about the cost of
living to break the bonds of habit They are
used to trotting around to the corner grocery
store and being soaked, and they would rather
continue to do so than take a little trouble and
avoid the soaking.
The war department. having duly recog-
nized this fact, abandoned the postofice plan
of selling and decided to open retail stores
Of its own. 1t also started to sell its foo
through regular retail stores and rolling
stores" Both of these processes have re-
Gently been going on here in New York The
chicken sold through regular butchers has
been largely taken because it came to the pub
lie in the usual way.
But the government retail store is the really
interesting experiment. Here is one more
chance for the public to buy cheap If this
store prospers (there is only one in New York
at the time this is written) others will be
added; according to Colonel J. VI. Carson of
the quartermaster corps. who has charge of
the selling of army food in this zone
How is the public taking this opportunity
to buy cheap, which will grow they demand
that / grow?
The public refuses to regard the army sale
as anything but a passing opportunity to buy
goods cheap at the expense in time and energy
and oxygen which such opportunities have al
which is accustomed to improving such op-
pCrtunities comes once, and then regards il
as all over, One-third of these do not buy
according to Captain Peterson. manager of
the store. They either have no money or want
nothing. They merely come because they are
in the habit Of attending bargain sales. and
perhaps because they regard them as an in
door sport.
The bulk of the public seems to pay no
attention to the army sales at all.
Needed: Some one to teach the public thai
extravaganza is not virtue. that it is not a
disgrace to go to the store and carry your
packages home, that the cost of living will
never come down unless we really want it to
come down badly enough to make some effort
to that end-in a word. badly enough to buy
cheap.