The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-28
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. C.
SODA COSTS AND PRICES. .

ness is very uncertain these days.
Small boys in New York have staged
soda water buyers strike to force
the return of the five cent soda. Chi
cago is conducting a campaign to find
out the fair rate for connecting and
showing across the counter one choco-
late soda. Providence has already de-
manded and obtained reductions on
certain fountain beverages. And If
other cities are not following suit with
militant warfare, they are economizing
, on drinks to an extent that is being
noticed by the fountain operators.
! People are said to be much less
reckless this summer in consuming ice
cream. That is, they are passing up
the elaborate concoctions with allur-
ing names which a year ago were in
great demand, and are turning to the
cheaper drinks. New York dealers
who have been ladling out SO cent
| fountain dishes regularly have had to
reduce the price of their specials"
But even at fountains where Is and
20 cents is not disdained by the clerks,
trade is said to have dropped from 10
TO 80 per cent this summer as COM
| pared with the same months last year.
Druggists and confectioners every
where are bordering what to do about
| fountain prices. The 10 cent soda is
not considered a possibility by most of
| them now. 1t is appearing here and
! there among the dealers who feel that
| circumstances warrant its return and
where pressure is being applied. The
| ma jority OF druggists, however, so far
as the sentiment can be measured, in
sist that there is no profit in 10 cent
soda or IS cent sundae.
| The public is naturally asking why
this is so. A couple of summers ago.
when the cost of an ice cream soda
with no flouriSheS, shot up to 1 Z cents
or even % cents. the reason for the
increase was laid by fountain proprie-
/ tors to the high cost of sugar. Sugar
was certainly skyrocketing when it
reached four times its normal price,
and the consumer accepted the expla-
nation.
Sugar Costs Normal Again
But now, sugar is back to nearly
where it was in the days when ice
cream soda sold for a nickel, and the
closest observer is unable to detect
any move on the part of most foun-
tain owners to return to even 10 cent
drinks.
Druggists admit they made a mis-
take in attributing the rise in soda
prices prim drily to the high cost of
sugar. They now say that other fac
] tors contributed equally to the rise.
| However, milk is back to almost pre-
war prices: eggs are cheap. These are
the ingredients which presumably in
creased the cost of ice cream. Why
doesn't the finished product follow the
trend of prices on raw materials?
| To this druggists the few
who have lowered fountain prices
say that still other factors must be
considered in fixing costs and profits
They contend that labor all along the
| line, from the handling of ice and the
making of ice cream, to the dispens-
| ing of drinks at the fountain is not
back to the level of 5 cent, or even
10 cent soda days. Some large con-
Germs have cut down the number of
employees rather than lower the wages
of fountain clerks. Only undesirable,
inexperienced employees can be had,
they say. at lower pay.
J The druggist goes on to mention the
| high express rates, the rising cost of
| advertising, the still soaring price of
| fruit syrups, and nuts, and the cost of
ice cream. Ice cream, supposedly the
| barometer of fountain prices. has
| dropped to varying extents in differ
| ent parts of the country. A question
| naire sent out by THE Bulletin of
| Pharmacy" brought in 344 answers
showing ice cream costs in AS states.
A resume of the answers indicated
that 1.-The most noticeable drop in price
is in certain sections of New England
where bulk cream tumbled from $3.50
| a gallon in 1920 to $1.25 in 1921. Other
scattered sections report reductions of
! 10 to rs cents under a year ago fig
ures."
The range of prices on ice cream
was shown to be astonishingly varied,
running from 80 cents to $3.50 a gall
| Ion on bulk cream and from $1.25 to
$3.40 a gallon on bricks.
Taking. everything into considera-
tion the fountain owner maintains
| that the cost of fountain drinks has
not dropped appreciably. He points
| to one experts estimate showing that
the syrup in soda costs $1,000; ice
| $.0006; carbonated water $.0016; and
| ice cream $.03-total, $.0526. To this
the expert adds overhead and salaries
| which he figures come to not less than
five cents.
The cost of a sundae he estimates at
four cents for ice cream and three
cents for fruit, and when extra
| touches, such as cherries, or nuts are
added, three more cents, to which
again he adds a nickel for the in
| tangible overhead. From his esti-
mates he claims that 5 cents is the
logical price for soda now, and 20
cents for a sundae.
The final argument from the
dealers side is that customers have
become more particular than in the
| good old days to which they so feel
ingiy refer. The man. who plunked
down a nickel and got a glass cas-
ually washed, sloppily filled to over
flowing and slammed down on a
| sticky counter with flies tapping up
the spilled syrup. felt that he had a
nickers worth. Today he would not
feel that this sort of service was
worth Is cents or even q nickel.
Soda fountains have had to raise their
standards of cleanliness and service.
And they could not go back to ex-
treme careIessness if they wished, at
| least not where health departments
keep an eye on sanitation in eating
places. Fountain owners claim that
| cleanliness and attractiveness of the
fountain are big Items in the i'm
portant overhead.
| The customer is rather at a disad-
! vantage IN the price argument in
cities where there have been such
4 arguments. He cannot quote rates
and costs so glibly as the business
man. The burden of his refrain is
that with sugar and milk and eggs SO
much cheaper and most other things
a little cheaper, fountain drinks GER