Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-12
The Cost of Poor Marketing

F THE eighteen billion dollar food Dill
J which the American people are paying
this year, large portion-as much as
80 or 40 per cent, some students reckon
could be saved by more efficient and more
adequate marketing Faulty methods of dis
tribution, lack of standardization, poor pack
ing and sundry other defects in the processes
by which food passes from the producer to
the consumer are responsible for the unneces-
sary costs. A million dollars worth of the
cattle and hogs shipped to Chicago in the
course Of twelvemonth died because OF
improper loading of the cars, and other live
stock markets sustained proportionate losses,
all of which must be paid for in the price
OF every pound of beef and bacon which the
householder Huys. The Wall Street Journal
quotes futures of the federal bureau of mar
kets showing that we pay, annually, for fifty
million dollars worth of improperly shipped
eggs, and millions untold of other food
products.
A typical case appears in the carload OF
peaches which was followed by government
observers to a western city, where 1t was
switched to a terminal accessible by teams.
'There, in the course of thirty-six hours, this
perishable fruit was loaded on trucks and
carried to the wholesale district, two miles
away. Next came the delivery of the whole
salers, and from then another handling to
the retailers necessitating more carting and
jostling over the rough pavements and expos
ure to heat and dirt, with consequent loss
When the retailers came to buy, they paid for
all this carriage and damage to the fruit. One
wholesale dealer in Washington stated that he
paid $4,000 year for ayoldable carriage
alone"
These are but gimpses of problem which,
is manifold and nationwide, which involves
the waste of billions of wealth and comes
sharply home to the rank and file of Amer
lean bread-Winners. The fact that this state
OF affairs Is at last being thoughttully OBJ
served is in itself cheering, for that is step,
and an important one, toward Improvement
There Is, of course, no need for the lnadequacy
and inefficiency which cause SO colossal a
waste; once the concrete sources and sltua-
lions are brought to notice. it Will be easy
to provide the remedy. There is nothing oc-
cult or particularly difficult in the proper
loading of cars, the expeditions handling OF
perishable goods, nor in grading standardlz-
ing and Grating. The record OF the georgia
Fruit Exchange bears abundant and SHINING
witness TO the practicabil1ty OF cooperation
amongst producers for assured and econom-
ical selling. The one great essential is that the
problem shall be competently studied, in its
intimate local aspects as we'll as IN It's proad
national bearings and then shall be energet-
ically grappled along the lines where change
or correction are shown to be needful.
Mr.. Hoover, we take it, will do much for
national research md suggestion in this vast
field. But there should be also thorough
going survey of marketing methods by each
state and each community. The Georgia Mar
ket bureau, division of the state department
of agriculture, has done good service with Its
limited resources, but if given the scope and
means it can find out deficiencies and suggest
improvements that would save many millions
of dollars to the commonwealth. Likewise,
the counties and towns, by looking closely
into their system of marketing, can do a.
great deal to reduce costs to merchants and
consumers and at the same time to build up
fairer profits for producers. Atlanta has
taken a most important and praiseworthy
step in its n for a nun ciral market, but
that touches only aspect of the many
sided .problem in which wholesaler, retailer
consumer and producer are all materially con-
cerned. This city, in company with scores OF
others throughout the nation, can tighten the
burden Of living-costs and also enrich the cur
rents of business by studying through scien-
tifc eyes the common interests which the
divers processes of marketing involve.