Evening star., 1947-09-18


now. Page AS
Housewives faced a new as
sault on their pocketbooks today
as meat prices in local retail
stores advanced once more.
Pork was up to 8 cents a pound
in two major chains while smaller
increases were reported in beef,
veal and lamb. Butter and eggs
were up in some stores. Others re-
ported lower prices.
Talk of buyers strikes and the
District Commissioners tWo-day-
old proclamation calling for public
observance of two meatlesS days a
week seem to have had little, if
any. effect on prices. The Com
mlss1oners did not discuss their
proclamation at todays board meet
ing. Chairman John Russell Young
said they are awaiting further pub
lie reaction.
Some stores reported customer
resistance" to high prices. One such
instance is fairly extensive switch
from butter to margarine, which
costs about half as much. Washing
ton restaurants are using more mar
garine, the Washington Restaurant
Association reported, and one butter
wholesaler estimated that the ratio
OF butter consumption to that of
margarine has fallen from around
three to one to about two to one.
This wholesaler, Henry Males. said
his butter sales were off 20 to 30
per cent in the last month.
The new meat prices quoted In
the Safeway Stores for the week
end include:
Sirloin and porterhouse steaks at
SO cents pound, up 4 cents over
last week.
Pork chops at II. up 6 cents.
Veal roasts, lamb legs and bacon
unchanged at 43, 50 and 81 cents,
respectively.
Butter in quarter pound prints Is
up 2 cents at SO and grade A eggs
are UP 4 cents to 83.
The A. & P. chain reported but
ter down from SO to 81 for qdarter-
pound prints and from go to 80 for
solid pounds. The decrease was at
tributed to the recent wholesale
drop of around cents a pound.
Eggs remained at IS cents for
grade A.
Pork Chops Up 6 Cents.
A. & P.'s pork loin prices went to
70 cents a pound, up cents, and
pork chops went up 6 cents to 73.
Lamb and veal shoulder roasts went
to 81 and 49, a rise of 2 cents each.
Steaks are Still under a dollar" a
pound, the chain reported.
Vegetables and canned goods re-
main at about their same levels
with some fluctuations due to the
end of the crop season for some
vegetables. This held true for most
District area stores.
The Restaurant Associations
committee to work out means of
meeting the current food problem
is already at work although an
association spokesman made it
plain the group does not consider
the answer to be the two meatless
days a week plan suggested by the
District commissioners.
Committee members are Watson
B. Rulon, association president:
Hubert H. Keller, Edward Warner,
A. H. Dressell, Raymond Lurba and
Robert J. Wilson, association secre-
tary. The group hopes to have q
report ready soon.
National Solution Sought.
Mr.. Wilson said the National
Restaurant Association, of which he
lis the Washington representative,
is also very much interested in the
problem and hopes to work out a
national solution. The association
expects to work with Secretary of
Agriculture Anderson if he sets up
IA new national group following the
cabinet food meeting next week.
Another development in the re-
tail food situation here was the an.
nouncement of j. Thomas Kennedy,
superintendent of weights, meas
ures and markets, that short weight
ing has definitely declined" since
he served notice last week that he
planned stricter inspections.
His larger staff of inspectors de-
tected some "chiseling" in few
small stores, he reported, but the
biggest short weight discovered was
only a 512-ounce shortage in a five
pound bag of potatoes.
Superintendent Kennedy said his
office in the past had seldom made
case of short weight against
chain store. He said chain store
managers have co-operated 100 per
cent and have given all clerks
printed instructions concerning
weight and measures regulations.
An Agriculture Department
spokesman said the department s
records of cattle slaughterings indi-
(see STORES, Page A-5.5