Evening star., 1942-10-10
Food Price Increase
by 0PA;
II Groups Affected
Merchants May Restock
Some Goods Taken OFF
Shelves After Squeeze
BY the Associated Press.

Ds tlle hSSOCldleu rIeSS-
Some of the Nations house
wives may soon pay more at the
corner grocery under a new al
tentative pricing formula an
nounced by the Office of Price
Administration.
They may also get some items
that have been off the grocer's
shelves lately because of a squeeze
on food wholesalers and retailers
who have found it difficult to do
business under March ceiling prices
The jump won't be much, Price
Administrator Henderson assured
the housewives-"a cent or two for
the most part for the affected food
stuffs."
There are hundreds of individual
items in II board groups announced
last night: Breakfast cereals, can
ned fish, cooking and salad oils,
sugar. canned vegetables, coffee,
rice, hydrogenated shortening, other
shortening, dried fruits and lard.
On two of these items, lard and
dried fruits, the new price ceilings,
effective October Is, are compulsory
and present maXimums must be
abandoned whether the ceilings re-
suit in higher or lower price tags.
Ceilings Optional in Nine.
On the other nine foods the CELL
ings may or may not be used at the
discretion of dealer in place Of
his March price levels as described
by the general price regulation.
Some unofficial estimates placed
the increase in the Nations food
cost at $70,00O0Oo annually or about
two-thirds of l per cent of the costs
of the food groups affected.
Under the new system retailers
are divided into classes, based on
dollar volume of sales. The per-
missible mark-ups differ as to each
class.
For instance, the country retailer
is allowed to multiply his net cost
of certain cereal by 1.22 to get his
alternative ceiling, while the big
city super-market can multiply its
net cost by only Ill. If in either
case the new price turns out to be
lower than the March ceiling, there
will be no change in the price to
the public.
This action. said Mr.. Henderson,
was taken by OPA to permit essen
tial foods to flow through wholesale
and retaail channels to the consum-
ing public.
Many Unable to Restock.
Many stores have found them
selves unable to retsock these items
because increases in costs at the
growing and processing level have
meant that neither the wholesaler
nor retailer could stock and sell the
goods under his March ceilings"
MIR. Anderson added that even
though the regulation may result in
a rise in some stores, the average
housewife may buy the foods more
cheaply than if she shopped in stores
with ceiling prices so high that they
could continue to carry them"
OPA officials did not attempt to
estimate the financial effect on the
family budget, saying perhaps only
70 to Is per cent of the 575 900 retail
ers and 5000 wholesalers would use
the alternative pricing. Wholesalers
have until November 80 to complete
adjustments, and retailers have until
December 81 to permit prices to
catch up with wholesale advances.
MIR. Henderson said OPA expected
the majority of dealers would find
their March prices more attractive
on most items" and would retain
them.
In Cost Of Living Category.
Most of the items are in the So
called cost of living category, mean
ing that storekeepers must display