Grocery bill

“ The cashier checks out those things and then the cashier says: Wait a second. You can’t just buy these things. You cannot just buy bread, milk, and eggs. You say: Why on Earth can I not buy just these three items? This is all I need. This is a different kind of grocery store. This is a grocery store patterned after the U.S. Congress. In order to buy bread, milk, and eggs, we are also going to require you to buy a bucket of nails, a half ton of iron ore, and you can use our wheelbarrow to take it out to your car, a book about cowboy poetry, and a Barry Manilow album. ”

“ Bills are a torment with a small income, so, while I found the bills for staple groceries, ice, and milk almost a necessity, I paid cash for all other articles of food; that is, meat, vegetables, fish, eggs, butter, etc. I went to market two or three times a week buying and paying for everything on the spot and seeing everything weighed and measured that was sold in that way. At the end of this practice month I made a list of what we had used in groceries, ice, and milk, and also added together all the cash spent on the other articles of food. ”

“ Thus, in the case of fifty-nine adult female operatives in a well-managed cotton mill in Maryland, the per-capita cost of subsistence, with a bill of fare embracing meats, all ordinary groceries and vegetables, milk, eggs, butter, fish, and fruit, has been found to be not in excess of twenty cents per day, including the cost of the preparation of the food and its serving. ”

“ Money can be spent to infinitely better advantage in the store, than by giving orders at the door, by phone or mail. Every housekeeper knows how large a proportion of the housekeeping money is swallowed up by the butcher's bill, so that with the meat item careful selection is most necessary in order to keep the bills within bounds. ”

“ The profits of the Grain Corp. and Sugar Board during the period of the Food Administration, in operation at home and abroad, exceeded $60,000,000. The food control may therefore be credited by the Government with a net profit of $50,000,000. But the savings of the people of the United States through the control of prices, through the prevention of discontent and strikes, and through the contribution of food to the Allies, cannot be measured in dollars. ”

“ Americans are concerned about rising food prices. Yet, despite this growing pressure on Americans' pocketbooks, Congress is considering a massive farm bill. Instead, they should pass a fiscally responsible bill. ”

“ Yesterday a decree was promulgated, ordering all persons having flour on sale to give it up to the Government at the current price. It will, I presume, be distributed to the bakers, like the meat to the butchers. As regards meat, the supply does not equal the demand—many persons are unable to obtain tickets, and consequently have to go without it. Restaurants cannot get enough for their customers. This evening, for instance, at seven o'clock, on going into a restaurant, I found almost everything already eaten up. ”

“ The Senate Finance Committee acted upon the suggestion of the secretary by introducing an amendment to the bill authorizing and directing the President to suspend by proclamation the free introduction of sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides from any country which should impose on products of the United States exactions which in view of the free introduction of sugar etc. he should deem reciprocally unequal and unreasonable. The rates at which the President is to demand duties upon the commodities named are duly fixed. ”

“ The grocer on the block where I live fills his baskets with large potatoes and gives in actual quantity only three pecks to the basket.
“Finally, the question of premiums. In modern 177 business methods we merchants never give something for nothing. If you receive premiums for buying a certain quantity of groceries, you must pay in the weight or the quality of the groceries. In a certain chain of stores in this city they sell what they call ‘Our Own Blend’ coffee, which they advertise as pure Mocha and Java. It is sold at thirty-four cents a pound, with a cup and saucer for a premium. ”

“ Soap and other cleaning materials have increased in quantity, and therefore in expense from 2d. to 51⁄2d. Clothing is a problem for which very few weekly figures are available. It must be covered by payments to clothing and boot clubs, or each article must be bought when needed. In any case the expense is greater and the amount of money available for food grows less. The unvarying amount paid for the bread-winner’s necessary daily food becomes a greater proportion of the food bill, and leaves all the increasing deficit to be met out of the food of the mother and children. ”

“ Mr. Patteson presented in the House of Commons a petition from the Mayor, Alderman, and Justices of Norwich, against the Bill to alter, explain, and amend the laws in force respecting bread, and for better regulating the mode of setting the price thereof out of London. The petition stated that the proposed Bill would add 4s. to the then allowance of 12s. for every quarter of wheat, and the baker for his labour, salt, &c., which would tend to raise the price of bread. ”

“ Most of this loss occurs in the commercial food chain, as food travels from farms to wholesale markets, manufacturers, supermarkets, company cafeterias, and restaurants, and much of it is recoverable. Whether it be day-old bread at a bakery or an extra pan of lasagna not served by a restaurant or cafeteria, a significant amount of this food is perfectly edible and wholesome. Throwing away such food is an intolerable loss, because it both denies hungry Americans a vital source of nourishment and wastes precious resources. ”

“ From a study of this chart, it can be readily seen that the cost of food may be reduced if the middlemen can be eliminated. For instance, the housewife will be able to get fruits and vegetables cheaper if she buys them from a farmer instead of a grocer, for she will not be called on to pay any of the grocer's overhead expense or profit. Again, if she buys her staple groceries in a store that is able to eliminate the wholesaler or the jobber, she will get them at a lower price than if she deals where these agencies must receive their share of the profits. ”

“ A right down good scolding would have been less difficult to bear!
“Oh, the coffee! It’s not the making. I paid sixpence more. The grocer’s bill will be bigger than ever this week,” she declared perversely. ”

“ But no retail dealer doing a business of less than $100,000 a year, nor any farmer or farmers' coöperative association came under the Food Administration's control. Thus the American food administration differed from that of most European countries in that it had no authority to fix the prices at which the actual producers should sell their products or the small retailers should charge the consumers. ”

“ And we are aiming to bring about direct connection between producer and consumer—farmer and housewife.”
“But what of that wagon,” inquired Claire, indicated a huge delivery wagon bearing the name of a prominent down-town department store, “does that firm sell fresh food?”
“No; staple groceries which they can buy in huge quantities, like five pounds of granulated sugar at twenty-three cents, when your grocer and mine are charging us at the rate of three and one-half pounds for eighteen cents. This firm delivers orders. The farmers, the hucksters and stand men can not. ”

“ Buying non-perishable foods in small quantities instead of in bulk. Food costs on an average 50 to 75 per cent. more when purchased in small quantities. Select a grocer who keeps his goods in sanitary condition and who will sell in bulk; then do your purchasing from him on a large scale and extend the sanitary care to your own storeroom.
Buying foods high in price but low in food value. Asparagus, canned or fresh, is not as nourishing, for instance, as canned corn or beans. Strawberries out of season do not compare with dates, figs or raisins which are to be had at all times. ”

“ From the sowing of crops to the purchasing of food and fiber in urban supermarkets, a network of farmers, agribusiness industries, carriers and shippers, scientists, retail distributors, and consumers has cooperated to ensure that our food supply is safe, affordable, and nutritious. As we gather with family and friends during this special week, let us give thanks for the blessings of our lives, for America's agricultural richness, and for the collaboration among rural and urban communities that makes so much of this bounty possible. ”

“ Such regulation of it as there has been, has been directed toward the health of the workers in congested masses, or has consisted of inspection and supervision with a view to the health of the public. But never has regulation of food preparation been extended to fixing wages or the prices to the public, as in the cases cited above where fear of monopoly prompted, and was held to justify, regulation of rates. There is no monopoly in the preparation of foods. ”

“ In order to keep in check, as far as possible, the social evils incident to an extensive system of relief, it is indispensably necessary that the relief committees should not sell the meal or other food provided by them, except in small quantities to persons who are known to have no other means of procuring food; that the price at which the meal is sold should, as nearly as possible, be the same as the market prices which prevail in the neighbourhood ”

“ Thus a local wholesale grocer grossing $280,000 in one year would pay a sum of $75.00, plus 1/16 of one percent of his sales, that is, $175.00-a total of $250.00.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105) . ”

“ To what extent the consumer is taxed on bread, salt, meat, sugar, coffee, beer, oil, etc., is difficult to calculate, and most persons have no idea to what extent they are fleeced. These taxes weigh heaviest on large families ”

“ The food is infamous, and the charges seem to be wilfully pitched about eighty per cent above the tariff, so that some portion of the bill, at least, may be paid without bloodshed, or the unseemly defilement of walls with the contents of drinking glasses. ”

“ Their Lordships desire that it may be fully understood that even at those places at which government depôts will be established for the sale of food, the depôts will not be opened while food can be obtained by the people from private dealers at reasonable prices; and that even when the depôts are opened, the meal will, if possible, be sold at such prices as will allow of the private trader selling at the same price with a reasonable profit. ”

“ Even though the labor supply may be adequate, efficient planning of menus demands that there be an adjustment between those foods requiring much labor and those requiring little, so that proper balance may be maintained.
In discussing the limitations in menu making the element of cost has come up again and again. It becomes a definite restriction in institutions that work on a budget, or where the group to be served demands good wholesome food at the lowest price. As examples of such institutions there are the factory cafeteria, the school lunch and the college cafeteria. ”

“ All who grew or made [125] more things than they could use brought them to the grocer to be sold. So the grocer helped them and they helped him, and the people went to the store for their supplies.
“You must remember, children,” went on Mr. Duwell, “the old-fashioned country store was very different from Parker’s grocery around the corner. Besides groceries, it sold harness, horse blankets, hardware, shoes, and everything people needed.”
II. The Modern Grocer
“Suppose Wallace were a grocer, Ruth, how would you like his store to be kept?” asked her mother. ”

“ Coupons issued to eligible households shall be used by them only to purchase food in retail food stores which have been approved for participation in the food stamp program at prices prevailing in such stores: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the Secretary to specify the prices at which food may be sold by wholesale food concerns or retail food stores. (c) Coupons issued to eligible households shall be simple in design and shall include only such words or illustrations as are required to explain their purpose and define their denomination. ”

“ Where a monopoly is granted, no doubt it is necessary, but hardly under any other circumstances; and here, whilst touching on the subject of regulation of prices, I would venture to say to the manufacturers, that whilst they appeal to the House of Commons and complain of a law the effect of which they state is to increase to them the price of bread, and which they tell us has in view solely the interest of the landed proprietors ”

“ An elaborate and efficient delivery service must be maintained by the grocers, and many small deliveries are made each day at an actual loss to the dealer. A large proportion of the grocery-store patrons buy on credit and pay when it becomes convenient. ”

“ A maximum allowance for carriage, baking material, and wages was 23/ per sack. When the Baking Society had taken stock of their flour they found that the difference between the discount allowed by the Government and the invoice price of the flour represented a loss to the Society of nearly £7,000. To the delegates at the quarterly meeting the chairman explained that this was due to the fact that the Society had purchased a large quantity of white flour in order to improve the quality of the bread. ”

“ Buy only small quantities of perishable things [Pg 16] such as green vegetables, fruit, fish, eggs, cream, and fresh butter; buy dry groceries and preserved stores in quantities large enough to entitle you to wholesale prices; and pay cash in order to avail yourself of the lowest market price. Make your purchases as early in the day as possible in order to secure a choice of fresh articles; and trade with respectable dealers who give full weight and honest measure. ”