The Union County journal. [volume] (Marysville, Ohio) 1875-1951, 1949-01-17

IOOu lHuuStfy Is BOIllB 10 pldCe
greater emphasis upon reducing
costs through greater efficiency,
and profits will be cut all along
the line"
Mr.. Hartford said that realis-
tic approach to the food price
situation called for recognition of
the following facts:
Food Consumption Facts
People are eating IL percent
more food than they did in the
pre-war years.
People are eating more of the
higher priced food items than
they did in pre-war years, par
ticularly in the case Of the lower
income groups. National meat
consumption, for instance, is up
an average of Is to 20 pounds per
person over pre-war levels.
Food retailing is the most eff
ficient form of retailing. Its en-
tire share Of the consumers dol
lar, which was 25 cents fifteen
years ago, is now down To Is
cents.
Food retailers profit rate is the
lowest of any retailers; ranging
from l to 4 cents on each dollar
of sales, and is already being re-
duced. A & P's profit rate of
about l.5 cents per dollar of sales
last year, for instance, is sub
stantially lower this year.
Mr.. Hartford said that keerer
competition will not only bring
prices down, but will Improve
quality and service as well.
Learn Public Desires
Everybody in the food field is
going to have to spend more time,
effort and money finding out
what the consumer wants and
giving it to her." he said. "Our
own company, for instance, ran
an advertisement in about 1000
papers this year asking customers
to write us their suggestions. The
thousands of answers that came
in were very helpful and have
given us blueprint for our ac-
tivitieS during the coring year.
We are striving to give our Gust
omers the things they asked for,
But if we and other retailers are
to keep our operations geared 10
consumer preferences, our custo-
mers must continue to let Us
know their wishes.
TO give customers the type of
service they want, retailers must
attract and hold competent en-
ployees. Some idea of the cost of
this phase of a retailers opera
tions may be gathered from the
experience of our own company
this year. Wage increases totaied
100000, and our payroll is up
Sl6C, 100000 since 194l. The esti-
mated annual cost of our COM
pany-financed retirement plan is
S9,000,000. We consider this ell
money well invested"
Mr.. Hartford said that he ex.
poets to see general stepping up
of food advertising OF various
types during 1949.
Greater Advertising
Our own advertising budget
has reached the highest point IN
the company's history, with ads
regularly scheduled in more than
1000 newspapers" he said. "These
ads are taking a new trend, for
we feel that consumers are no
longer satisfied with OILY the
traditional listing of food prices.
/ They have learned that lower
prices are no bargain when the
quality of the food is inferior. For
this reason, we think they want
food ads to tell them something
about the product so that they
can compare quality as we'll as
price"
Mr.. Hartford said that lust as
the job of pleasing and serving
the consumer is most important
to us, it is also one to which
farmers must give the greatest
attention. Unless they do so, they
are not going to be able to main
tain sound markets for. farm pro-
ducts. While we all want bower
food prices, this nation, cannot
afford to achie.e them by bank
rupting agriculture.
Produce prices are down more
than 10 percent Consumption of
fresh fruits and vegetables has
already fallen off percent and
IN some commodities and regions
farm prices are getting perllously