New-York tribune., 1920-09-25
40 Restaurants
Plan Sweeping
Slash I'm Prices
Members of Society of Res
taurateurs Name Buyer,
Who Will Cooperate With
Commission vi erchants
General Food Costs In
Fresh Produce Drops in the
Wholesale Market, but Re-
taller Makes No Changes

Restaurant prices will decline here
within a few days, it is predicted
through cooperative purchasing plan
of forty members Of the Society of
Restaurateurs, according to August
Jansen, president Leonard May has
been appointed buyer and commiss ion
merchants have agreed to cooperate A
new price list submitted to the res
taurant proprietors shows extensive re-
ductions, Jansen said He predicted
general cuts and said his organization
hoped to extend the cooperation move
ment throughout the country, investi-
gate New York's milk problem and
teach housewives not to waste food.
Other restaurant men said they could
see no change in prices, except upward.
Even the humble oyster, they said, is
a half cent higher, napkins are six
times what they used to be, and IS
cents is bottom figure for pic One
restaurant manager complained against
the arry-your-own-luch campaign, in
sisting that it IS impossible to ge.
good meal in a restaurant for less than
a dollar
general survey showed that many
unassuming restaurants now charge
25 cents for soup or pie, and so cents
for the smallest steak.
Food Prices Still Rising
Inquiry in the markets makes it
plain that the cost of food is still
rising.
Bread. the food barometer, remains
II to 16 cents loaf, and the bakers
arc contracting for flour at higher
prices. They admit that a general
price slump would lower bread.
Representative meat dealers assert
that beef and pork have risen A cents
a pound in the last month, and cite
these specific increases: Loin pork.
SO to 56 cents; lamb hindquarters, AZ
to 45 cents; chops, so to 55 cents;
whole quarters of beef, 81 to 40 cents.
changed since. June: Prime ribs, so
cents; sirloin steak, 55 cents; porter
house steak, so cents; round steak, 55
cents; pot roast, so cents. The deal
ers anticipate an increase Of cents
pound retail. The exceptions in meat
are beef tongue, which dropped from
is to 45 cents in a month, and lamb,
from 80 to AZ cents.
An official of the American Sugar
Refining Company said yesterday that
sugar would rise from II to 20 cents a
pound by November, despite a supply
more than adequate. because prices
hrn ,ol l. I,/r1,n =, !
be exported in great quantities. He
said the refiners are selling sugar at
Ia ccEts to the wholesaler, who makes
a profit of one cent. Between that
point and the consumer two cents i;
added. Last year sugar sold Wholesale
at II cents, rising to Is cents in March,
1920. and 27 cents in June. 1t dropped
to ID cents and would have gone lower
cXcept for export trade, he declared.
Milk dealers have maintained tAAt
higher prices of feed for cows compc.
higher prices.
Consumer Gets No Relief
Fresh produce has dropped because
of splendid crops, but the retailer has
succeeded in maintaining top prices to
the consumer, according to Mr. Jones.
w. {. Taber, of The New York Pro-
duce Review, declared that large I'M
ports of butter are relieving local
shortage but so irregularly that it is
impossible to make forecasts Yester-
day 10000 boxes of butter arrived. Last
week 1,217,272 pounds arrived from
Denmark, where the condition of eX-
change makes such export profitable
In July almost 100000 pounds of Dan
ish butter arrived here. The Bureau of
Markets listed 66,G52 pounds Of butter
in New York yesterday. against 10000
pounds year ago, but the cold storage
supply was 21,272,607 pounds, against
g, ,65I 1922 pounds year ago.
Butter is retailing at from 65 to "a
cents.
II. II. Jones, superintendent of the
State Division of Foods and Markets,
reports that butter production has de
creased locally, because milk is used
for other purposes. He attributes a
dearth of eggs to the results of the
food adm nistration's war of prohibition
on killing hens. Poultry ralsers, it is
said, found it so expensive to keep
chickens that they have gone out OF
business. There are million pounds
less of frozen eggs in storage here than
at TINS time last year. Storage fowl are
double last years quantity, although
roasters are fewer and turk eys half as
many
To-day the Division of Markets will
announce these as the weeks produce
prices: Apples, 81 to So bushcl; cab
bage, 81 to SIS for 100 heads; cauli-
flower, $1.50 to 1926 a large crate;
celery. S3.75 to 81 crate; corn, 81 to
SIS Tor 100 ears; cucumbers, S1.75 to
$2 bushel; grapes, $1.40 to $1.75 for
eight baskets; lettuce. 81 to S2.25 a
crate; lima beans, $3.50 to So a bushel;
onions, 1925 to $2.5J bag; peaches,
$1;oo $$,o TO S2'75 bushel; pears. $5 to
S2.25 to $2.35 crate of l5O, pounds;
red raspberries, II to Is cents a pint:
spinach, $1.75 to S2.26 for thirty-two
quarts; sweet potatoes, 81 to S45 a
barrel; romaine. 81 to 50 crate.