Evening star., 1943-05-30
BY NORMAN KAHL.

Ventured forth last week to try to
find out whether Washihgton'S small
retail grocers,' the kind that run
what the OPA calls Pop and
Mamma stores are observing the
new community price ceilings which
have been established by the Dis
trict OPA during the past three
weeks
Last night, after a long study OF
notes and ceiling tables and after
/ gazing long and searchingly at the
pile of groceries they bought. the
reporters reached these conclusions
l. Some grocerS are and some
grocers aren't observing the CELL
, ings.
2. Those who aren't are charging
legal prices on some items. but not
on all of them
3. The housewives lot these days
is not a happy one.
Visited IA Stores.
a. Neither is the grOcer'S
On two different days, the report
ers visited total of 13 different
stores in widely separated parts of
tht District and one in nearby
Maryland In five of the stores
they were charged more than the
legal maximum price for at least
one of the articles they purchased.
In only one store did they find
the community ceilings properly
posted as required by OPA regula-
| tions
In not a single store did they find
any sign posted to indicate the clas-
| siflcation into which that particu-
Lar store fell Such posting is also
required by OPA.
Community ceilings, issued on
May 9, 16 and %. cover more than
600 different kinds of food. Most
of the foods are divided into four
different categorles, one for each
/ type Of store. Altogether there are
about 1000 different prices listed
Shopping Not Simple.
| Maybe this Wouldnt be SO bad if
| the housewife could sit down quietly
, in her home, determine what store
she is going to visit and exactly what
she is going to buy. But shopping
isn't that simple these days. If she
/ prepares careful list of items. with
the proper prices noted, taken from
the lists she clipped from the papers,
she Will discover when she gets to
her store that the grocer doesn' t
have many of the things she listed,
or at least not in the brands she
wants.
So she substitutes other items,
other brands. If she wants to check
the prices of these brands against
the 9rocer'S list. she can do so, pro-
Vldlng the groces has his list posted
somewhere. The trouble is, he S
likely not to have a list anywhere
in the store
This is what happened to The
Stars reporters. To make things
as simple as possible, they decided
to visit only one kind of store, Glass
l, with an annual business of less
than $50,000 last year They Sc
lected stores which were unmis-
takably in this class. Then they
limited their purchases to foods
which require no ration points This
eliminated such things as butter,
meat, cheeses, canned fish, canned
fruits and vegetables-in fact more
than half of the foods on the list
With what was left. they planned
thcil excursion.
Two OvcrchargeS.
At Store No. l. in the northwest
section, they asked for three items
a jar OF peanut butter, package of
corn fakes and dozen eggs. They
were charged 80 cents for the pea
nut butter that should have been
33 cents: the price of the cornf1akes
was right. 10 cents. and they paid
SIS cents for dozen eggs in carton
on which the ceiling was SO cents.
Total overcharge on the two items:
8 cents. The overcharges were
called to the attention of the wom-
an proprietor who said she didn't
know that the prices were too high
She was asked for her ceiling list
She searched a large stack of OPA
orders, amendments. price ceilings
but she was unable to find the COM
mUnity ceilings.
At Store No. 2. northwest. prices
were marked on the shelves. but the
ceilings were not pogved. They ap-
peared to be in line with the ceilings.
At store No. 3. Northwest, prices
were not marked and only few of
the items listed in the community
ceilings were available The report
ers bought package of breakfast
food for II cents. The price should