Evening star., 1961-06-11
CONSUMERS
CONSUMERS
!: Package Food Items
] Vary in Weight, Size
Continued From First Page


Continued From First Page
tsins 434 ounces. The jar with
the top that conceals the empty
part of the glass contains Az
ounces.
What difference does i'll
make? A home economist fig
ured out for the committee
that if a mother used four Jars
a day, the difference between
the two jars would amount to
% pounds in a year. That's a
lot of baby food.
The committee has examples
Of lowered contents without
lowered prices. A box of soap
pads used to be advertised as
having II pads to the box. The
company, to meet competition
without raising prices, put out
a box with 10 soap pads. The
number of pads appears in very
small print on the back of
the box.
Tiny Figures Used
Here's how the paper napkins
figure in the investigation.
Three boxes, successively put
out by the same company, are
all the same size and color.
Prominently displayed on the
front of the earliest box is the
announcement Of 80 napkins
within.
On the second box, the count
is. still 80 napkins but it is
printed in tiny letters on the
back. On the third box, the
same tiny letters report the
box contains 10 paper napkins.
investigation revealed that
competition prompted the COM
pany to reduce the price of the
original box Of 80 napkins.
Then. the company switched
the number of napkins to the
back of the box. When house
wives got used to buying the
box without looking for the
figure 80 on the front in big
letters, the number was re-
duced to 10 napkins to cut
coSts-not the cost to the
housewife but to the producer.
Two packages of wax paper
by the same company look the
same SIZE. On one of them,
however. the sales pitch is,
"125 foot roll, 25 feet more.
The other box doesn't have
this pitch. Instead on the end
Of the package-hidden by the
next stack of packages-is the
count of rs feet. This box is
competing with the 100-foot
rolls of the other wax paper
companies.
Detergent Weights Vary
Five boxes of detergents-all
the same sizes from different
companies-are among the ex-
hibits. They all vary in price.
If the housewife takes the time
to- figure out price by ounces,
she runs into varying contents
of ! pound, 4 ounces; pound,
IA ounces; pound. 534 ounces
and is ounces plus a wash
cloth.
The investigation also has
revealed these headaches for
the housewife:
A cleanser is wrapped in such
glittering green paper that it
is virtually impossible to read
the tiny black print revealing
the net weight of the contents.
A cracker company's four
pack is a pound but it's two
pack is seven and a quarter
ounces instead of a half-pound
and its single pack is 33s
ounces instead of a quarter of
a pound.
The investigation so far in
dicates: The lowest priced item
may not be the cheapest in
reality. The economy size may
not be the most economical.
Reduced contents are masked
by a variety of gimmicks.
I'VE want to find out" said
Senator Hart yesterday,
whether packaging and pres
entation of the articles is done
in such way as to permit an
intelligent selection by the con-
summers. We also want to know
how it affects competition. How
can competition operate with
maximum efficiency if the con-
sumer can't figure out what
she is buying to the ounce?
Either we're going to have
to simplify the way goods are
presented in terms of weight
or we'll have to give housewives
extension courses in mathe-
matics."
Typical Of letters from belle
aguered housewives to the COM
mittee was this one:
II almost always have to take
our three small children along
which slows my shopping witlf@
out the mathematical problems
posed by the variations in pack
ing, labelling and pricing" she
wrote.
II have to stop and figure
out whether it's cheaper to buy
six SO cent small cans of frozen
juice or two Ascent large cans
I have no doubt that people
quick at simple arithmetic find
this simple problem but ]
never won any medals for
mathematical ability. 1 passed
the subject in school only
through working at it, as I still
do.
1T is my point that grocers
should be satisfied that spend