The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-11
GROCER SAYS PRODUCE MORE
 TO LOWER H. c. L.

The 1ollOW1nS remarks were gwen by A. Davis, president of the Ma tionaI Wholesale Grocers' Association at their convention in New YorK last i week:
 During the year we have been l compelled by one authority or an | other to meet tests suggested by vii l sionary people who proposed to solve | the H. c. of L. problem Some of | the most impractical as well as the | most vicious regulations and meth | odS have been imposed upon business in practically all sections of the coun- ] try. While know you would not ap- i prove of even my suggesting defense of your loyalty to your country in time of stress, I grant we have not yet, in this free America, reached the point where we can willingly sub init by turning the other cheek to us even after protest and attention is called to the injustice.
 When the complaint is heard that prices are too high-and they are high-1et us not forget that they will be higher unless more is produced, and the remedy seems to be-pro- duce and produce still more. There in lies our salvation, and individual cooperation is urgently needed. The mills and factories that were suddenly turned from peace produc- ton to production for war are now reversed and will soon, we hope, show the effect of the new effort and a happy outcome may be expected of the present problems, for if the war taught us anything it was to pro | duce thousands where we produced | hundreds before. One problem then is to urge production to it's ultimate | degree of efficiency.
 The grocery business as practiced l today must be fundamentally sound l or it could not have survived the shocks itS.has met. The superior and autocratic manner used by some of the official representatives of the new 1 idea, displacing with a wave Of the ! hand business practices in use for l over a hundred yearS-and that have | placed this industry in the fore for quick and economic distribution l has been il1-advised and harmful New methods do not come at a beck l and call or with the simple statement we must be perfect
 All of us hate war. Let us consid- CT our past year and some experi- ences of which we have real cause | to complain as part of the misfor- | tunes of war.
 The selling at cost idea now prac- | ticed by some manufacturers in SUD- plying their employees with food at cost is, am convinced, based on a false principle. There is a feeling
 that wholesale and retail grocers are
 getting rich overnight by prof1teering
 or otherwise, and there are many evi-
 dences that the corner grocer will be
 attacked more consistently than he
 has in the past because of this inn | Tvi1 rt
 be pushed aside, but we must admit 1 that there is room for greater eff
 ciency as well as opportunity for eli
 imitation of waste. These savings should be secured and passed on to
 the consumer.
 The competition of the chain store
 is heavy-but the chain store alone will not be the small stores undoing
 The purchasing, assembling and the
 distribution expense must be met by
 whatever method used, and the differ
 ence in the chain method and the 1 wholesaler to retailer method is not sufficient saving to spell defeat to
 the latter.
 Service is sti1 an important fac
 tor with the consumer, and while the
 housewife has her views of what she
 wishes for her table, and still likes
 to make the decision as to what she
 small puy and not De umReQ to the items the chain system persists must
 be bought to enable them to produce the economies they claim to show, is
 still a factor to be reckOned with.
 But with the sale at cost idea, now
 attracting great attention, this is an . entirely different proposition. Only
 when business carries itself and , pays enough more to attract capital
 is it based on a stable foundation. ; There are, approximately, 4,000
 wholesale grocers in this country. 1 l am convinced that 2,000 of these
 would be willing to spend money for
 constructive advertising in addition , to what is being spent by them to-
 day. Would $1,O00 per year each be too much to expect these 2,0o0
 merchants to spend? If not, this
 means s2,00O,O0 for advertising nice order for any agency; nice line
 of advertising for newspapers, maga- zines, etc. Good SalesmanShip would
 seem to me to suggest a plan for ad-
 vertising, not a little hammer al 7 every opportunity. I don't think the
 wholesale grocer is a dull individual
 manufacturers place, the producer } of some lines place, the canners' of
 many lines place in his fight with the packers.
 People who pay the prices fixed by . the fair price committees are fre- quently sorry when they note the 9 prices announced by the erterprisins