Evening star., 1952-07-16
Behind the Food PIons
Behind the Food Plons
Buying Freezer at List Price,
lis Club SuIesmun's Joker
By WiIliom Hines

By WiIliom Hines
When the food club represent
ative comes to your house, his
foot-in-the-door is an explanation
of how you can join a money
saving food plan without paying
a cent for your freezer.
Sometimes, lacking the crust of
the most hardened statesmen, he
will merely tell you how you can
enjoy this privilege without pay
ing a cent more for your freezer
than the manufacturers list price.
The joker is in the phrase "list
price" For a long time now,
freezers have been selling all over
the country. without a food-club
tie-in, at below list price. But you
will have to look long and hard to
find a place where you can do that
and belong to food club" too.
Yet one food club salesman,
confronted with evidence that his
freezer could be bought elsewhere
at less than list, denied heatedly
that the proper way to regard the
difference between his price and
his competitors was as a hidden
cost in the purchase of wholesale
food"
Only Part Of Food.
One of the outstanding tricks OF
the trade is to "show" the pros
pect how he can save 80 per cent
on his food budget. The food
budget, to most people, means
only one thing-the amount OF
money spent on food. Most nu-
tritionists evaluate perishables
Except eggs and dairy products)
at AZ per cent of the budget.
Freezable perishables-which do
not include potatoes. lettuce. cell
cry, etc.-are figured at about 80
per cent. The food plans gen.
orally offer only freezable items at
so-called wholesale" prices, leav-
ing it up to the prospect to buy
his own staples. bread, dairy items
and non-freezables catch-as-
catch-can.
The figure 80 per cent sounds
good, but the hard facts of arith-
metic are working against its
meaning anything. How much
would you have to save on freez-
able perishables to cut your whole
budget 80 per cent? Most people
don't stop to figure it out-and
the salesman doesn't volunteer
the information.
Take a concrete case: John Doe
budgets $3.50 a month for food.
One-third Of this. or $50. is in
freezables. Now, if John is going
to cut his whole budget 80 per
cent, he will have to lop $45 a
month off it. The only way he
can do this under a food plan is
to save the $45 out of his freez-
ables.
It's simple subtraction from
here on: To save 80 per cent OF
his food budget. he would have to
buy from the food club for IS what
he had been paying $50 for at the
market. In other words, he would
have to get his freezables at 90
per cent below the market price.
He couldn't do this well if he grew
his meat, fruits and vegetables in
his own back yard.
"Up to $50" Saving.
Or take one truly grandiose
plan that tells you how to save
"up to $50 a month on food"
In John Does case, this would
mean getting your freezable food
as a gift. There is a joker, of
course; it is in that phrase "up
to $50", which means anything
less than $50. To that extent, the
claim Is accurate. That food club
will save the average buyer plen-
ty less than $50 a month.
Another trick of the trade Is to
use nice-sounding, but actually
meaningless, descriptions Of meat
|items-because meat, while not as
big an item of savings under the
plans as some frozen foods, bulks
big in the public mind. Also. most
Iof the food plan advertising
stresses great meat savings.
One plan here states blatantly
that I'VE sell only United States
inspected prime meats" Meat ex-
perts agree there isn't enough
prime beef on the Washington
market to make this claim sup
portable. Meat men also caution
that, even If you get prime meat,
some prime can be less desirable
than some choice. And some
choice meat Offered by other
plans) can be as tough as a lum-
berjack's boot.
Men whose lives have been
spent in the meat business are
quick to warn that, if you don't
know meat-and most people
don't-trying to outwit the BUTCH