The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-11-04
As Otbers See 1t
a "sweEr.scENrEp" SCHEME
(Avon Park Pilot.)

3 =
At Lakeland when the editors of South Florida
We're attending their semiannual meeting they
were invited to meet with the secretary OF the !
Lakeland Chamber of Commerce and representa-
tives of the wholesale grocery houses ine that
city. At this meeting sweetscented plan was
exposed, whereby it is purposed by large
wholesale grocery firms in Tampa to wipe out
the interior wholesalers and the wholesalers of
Tampa who are not members of the big seven q
and eventually let the ultimate consumer dig {
down a little deeper in his jeans, make good the
loss the combine" purposes to take during the
process of eliminating the other fellows and then
pay tribute in the way of ever-increasing prices.
II is beautiful scheme, well planned and would
be credit to the boldest pirates who ever sailed
the Spanish Main, the only difference between
the big seven" and the pirate being that the
latter was willing to take a chance" while the
former runs absolutely no risk if the dear public
will stand for it's operations.
The plan as outlined at Lakeland is for these
seven big firms to establish warehouses in var
ious points throughout South Florida, cut the
price on the necessaries of life until the whole
salers outside the combination" are forced out.
6f business and then boost the prices skyward
until the consumer is paying as unreasonable ,
prices is the Standard Oil Company charging
for kerosene and gasoline-prices made possible
by putting their smaller competitors out ofbusi-
ness in the same Manner as is outlined aboye.
Will the public stand for such scheme or will
it analyze it and refuse to patronize the grocers
who purchase their goods from the buccaneers?
By refusing to buy from those who purchase their
goods from the sweet-scented seven, the purchas-
er may lose a few cents on each purchase for Il
time, but eventually he will save dollars where
he will at first lose pennies. By patronzing those
who purchase their goods from the Independent
wholesalers the consumer encourages competi-
ton, something which will be eliminated if the
small wholesalers are put out of business. By
patronizng those who purchase from the big
seven" the consumer is simply assisting in put
ting the moose around his own neck.
At the meeting mentioned it was shown that
the wholesalers in this pretty scheme had at
tempted to coerce manufacturers and distributors
into charging the interior wholesalers and those
outside the ring higher price than was charged
the big seven" In most instances this failed
therefore other tactics had to be resorted to-
hence the plan to establish these interior
houses and do business at a loss until compet
ton eliminated,
Arrayed against the big seven" are eighteen
interior wholesale grocers and thirty someodd in
Tampa. The press of South Florida is willing to
assist the independent wholesalers by giving
publicity to the nefarious plan to put them out
of business, but if the Independents are to win
they must organize and spend of their own
money in a campaign of education. Publishers
cannot afford to bear the entire burden of ex-
pense, even in working for the cause of the gen.
eral public. 1t takes time to gather data and
prepare articles and money to have these articles
put into type.
We would suggest that the independents, whose
very existence is at stake, get together and raise
a publicity fund, place it in the hands of some
competent newspaper man publicity agency
and place the full facts before the public News
paper publishers have been swamped with free
publicity matter until everything savoring of it
finds its way into the waste basket unread. They
would appreciate little paid publicity matter
and would donate editorial space to the cause
if disposition is shown on the part of the
other fellow to bear portion of the burden of
expense Ne T.