Evening star., 1952-07-13
Behind the Food PIons
By WiIIiom Hines

WV H4oAAot AAOA 0A0CO dS 0dtHlk
the customer anywhere from 25
to SO per cent on his annual food
bill, have taken Washington by
storm. The Better Business Bu-
reau estimates that a dozen such
plans are operating here, all of
them offering the public a deal
which is variation on this main
theme:
Live like a millionaire on a
hamburger budget! Eat as you
never have eaten before. and save
lots of money! Own a home
freezer at no cost to yourself!
Buy at wholesale and save!"
Some of the plans are more
discreet than this; they just offer
substantial savings" and leave it
to the prospect to guess what the
word substantial" means. Others
are more blatant-they leave the
impression that a $500 freezer is
yours with no strings attached If
you join a food club.
Freezer Food Tie-ins.
Basically, the flood savings
plans"-by whatever names they
may be known-are simply ar
rangements to tie in the sale of
food freezers with seemingly at
tractive offers on food. But the
gained by many pros
poets from the food clubs adver-
tiSing is that the food is the item
being pushed and the freezer is
Just a sideline.
No impression could be more
erroneous. From the food plans
inception in the Midwest two
years ago, they have had no other
purpose than to spur the sales of
home freezers. The fact is that
the plans are sponsored, not byI
grocery interests. but by electrical
appliance dealers. An indication
Of how the appliance stores are
doing can be gained from one re-
liable piece of information: An
electrical store here is reported to
be selling as many freezers in a.
week as it used to in a year, now
that it has food plan in opera
ton.
There is no sound estimate of
how much business the food plans
have done here. But there are
straws in the. wind, such as the
increased volume of sales reported
above. There is another indica-I
ton in the appearance recently
of food chain ads, attempting to-
debunk the claims made by the
plans promoters.
The food buyer, beleaguered by
high costs in groceries, is a natural
audience for the spiels of the food
club statesmen. These hucksters
make the deal sound SO good it
is difficult to see how any one
could miss by joining food club.
Consumer in the Middle.
Then along come the, chain
stores, strongly implying in their
ads that the food plans are gyps.
In the middle Of this advertising
battlefield st the consumer, ;,
trying to sol ne truth out of
conf1icing claims.
AS in most such cases, the truth
seems to lie between the extremes.
On the basis of careful study,
these facts stand out:
l. There is no truth in asser-
tions that savings Of anything
like 25 or 80 per cent in the
family food budget can be ef-
fected as a result of membership
in a food plan.
2. There is, likewise, no truth
in any fat claim that money
cannot be saved through MEM
bership.
3. There seems to be no deal
offered by any food club-tied
in with the sale of a freezer
that cannot be duplicated by a
freezer owner who buys wisely
without joining q club.
4. There is no actual whole
sale food plan now being offered
in Washington-and. as far as is
known, none anywhere in the
Freezer Makers Brainchild.
Despite what a food club rep
resentative may produce in the
way of figureS--al1d their figures
q ra y,noSt ,,arS,io Siva-it iS unathe.