The Wilmington morning star., 1941-11-29
w Washington Daybook
WASHINGTON. Nov. %.


One Of the big problems the Office of Price
administration is trying to solve now is how
to educate the public against "scare buying
and At the same time hammer home the
necessity Of conservation of certain defense
materials and products that contain them.
Scare buying Is almost as old as mer.
chandising itself. It's the old get 'em-while'
they-last'' game played with all the subtle
ties of modern salesmanship. It's the raw
materials producer saying to the manufac-
turer: II wouldn't do this for my own brother,
but 1 can let you have ten tons and you
better buy all of that because there probably
won't be another ounce in 1912"
It's the wholesale salesman whispering to
the retailer over hideaway luncheon table:
"Joe, you better take the whole 10000 gross.
You know there are priorities now and they II
hit this stuff any day-maybe tomorrow
It's the retailer telling his customers that
he has been able to lay in small supply
of these or those and when they are gone,
there won't be any more.
In some instances, it is just that kind OF
a vicious cycle and the evils that are born
Of it are high prices, boarding, inflation-the
business triplets that invariably run interfer'
ence for postwar depression.
On two major fronts (and a good many
minor ones) OPA is waging a war against
-"scare buying and at the same time trying
to convince that greatest waster OF all time
the American Public, that it has to mend its
wasting ways if we are going to come even
close to satisfying the appetite OF defense In
dustries for raw materials
In the first place, OPA Director Leon Hen
derson called to Washington Edgar J. Kauf'
mann, the Pittsburgh department store ty'
coon, He put him behind an OPA desk, gave
him the title of consultant on distribution
problems-and ordered routed through him
all questions relating to pricing and dlstrlbu
ton of finished goods-'with special refer
ence to scare buying.
Kaufmann's field of operations it the 17OO,
600 distributors and retailers in the country
who peddle everything from hairpins to cul
tivators.
On the other front, Associate OPA Director
Harriet Elliott is trying through the "Con
sumer's Pledge"-to buy carefully, take good
care of the goods they have and waste moth
ucts as thick-skinned as possible against the
lure of scare buying and at the same time
press home the necessity for conservation.
What happened in certain sections of the
East when the gasoline shortage scare spread
is a good example of buying hysterla thai
develops when the public becomes alarmed
at the prospect of having to DO Wltnout some
necessary commodity
A more recent example and an even better
one is what is happening in the marketing
Of chemical products for prevention OF auto
radiator freezing.
AT the same time Miss Elliott is telling
the world that the supply of anti-freeze should
be adequate for this winter and that mo re.
tail price advance for anti-freeze solutions is
justified at this time" she is explaining that
because chemicals used are important in ex.
plosive manufacture and are needed for use
by the Army and Navy, every motorist ought
to follow the OPA consumer divisions leigh,
points for reducing anti-freeze solution waste
to a minimum. ]