The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-09-29
EXTORTION BY FOOD
DEALERS CHARGED
Municipal Market Expert
Cites Examples Of Shame
less Profiteering.
RETAILERS CENSURED
More Eggs in City Than a
Year Ago and Wholesale
Prices Lower.
STATE CONTROL URGED
Mrs. Louis r. Weizmiller Sees
One Cure to Protect
Housewives.
STATE CONTROL URGED

Charges that retail dealers in food
in New York city are profiteering
boldly and shamelessly were renewed
by the Department of Markets yester-
day. Commissioner Edwin ]. O'Mailey
was in Albany. but Mrs. Louis Reed
Weizmiller. Deputy Commissioner,
spoke for the department.
There is absolutely no excuse for
what is going on" Mrs. Weizmiller
said. Food of all kinds is plentiful.
Wholesale prices are low. The price
Of some commodities, such as pork. is
lower than for six or seven years.
Yet the food retailers-the neighbor-
hood stores-are asking more than
ever.
Here" she said, 'is report on the
price at a well known neighborhood
store in Brooklyn. It's prices are prob
ably more reasonable than would be
found in a similar market in Manhattan.
Yet they are clear out of reason and
indicate outright profiteering.
'They charge 40 cents a pound for
fresh hams. The price should be %
to % cents. Bacon Is sold at "a cents,
and while some stores in Manhattan de-
mand 45, it should not be more than
% cents anywhere. Pork is lower than
it has been since before the war. The
price for ribs OF beef is SO cents. 1t
should be "a cents. Round steak is sold
at As cents and nobody ought to be
paying more than % to 80 cents. This
market gets AZ cents for lamb chops and
they are worth not more than 80 cents.
Lets take up eggs. New York Is
bursting with eggs, fresh and cold stor-
age. There are 100000 more cases of
eggs in the cold storage plants now than
there were at this time year ago.
These eggs were put away at around
25 cents What are they getting for
all sorts OF fancy names. Now in New
York and most everywhere else eggs
Is eggs. and the classifications and high
sounding distinctions don't mean as
much as they should They are very
apt to come out Of the same box these
variously classified eggs, but for some
of them dealers are getting SO cents
dozen. They should not be more than
35 cents.
1.-THE same situation obtains in butter
More than thirty grades Of butter are
listed, but butter is pretty much the
same-or, rather. there are two kinds.
good and bad. The best should not cost
more than So or 81 cents a pound
Potatoes are being sold at five pounds
for 25 cents In the most reasonable of
the neighborhood stores. IL one of our
municipal markets had the nerve to sell
less than ten or a dozen pounds for 25
cents the marketeer would quickly find
himself profiteer in our eyes. All
along the line Of vegetables the public
is being mulcted and bilked. It's out
raeeous.
find paddock. for example, selling at 3S
cents a pound. I denounce that as alb
solute profiteering wherever II occurs or
wherever anything approaching IL Is
found. Haddock should be bought any
where for not more than 10 or IL cents
pound.
I'm all these comments and estimates
I am allowing at least 10 pc. cent profit
for the retail food dealer when I state
the prices that should exist. But they
aren't satisfied with 10 per cent. They
demand and get SO per cent. to rs per
cent. AS a rule the prices in the neigh
borhood stores are from 35 to so per
cent. higher than In the municipal mar
kets. and even when you allow for rent
and other overhead costs the margin Is
wildly excessive.
There Ia only one cure for such evils.
That Is a State law. How hard it would
be to get State law allowing all retail
food sellers to be regulated by the De-
partment of Markets you can imagine.
There has been no restriction In retail
food prices since Federal authority was
exerted in war days"