Adventures in Thrift/Chapter 7
—H. C. of L. proverb no. 7.
MRS. LARRY and Claire really meant to be on their way to Dorlon's by nine o'clock, but there were various delays. Lisbeth, coquetting in her bath, lured them for ten minutes. Mrs. Larry recalled that she must telephone her dressmaker. Claire remembered an unacknowledged dinner invitation and stopped to dash off a note. It was ten o'clock when their adventure in thrift landed them at Dorlon's high-class grocery store.
Mr. Benton, the suave manager of the store, recognizing Mrs. Larry as a customer in good standing, looked a trifle anxious as he rose at his desk to receive them. What employee had been remiss, he wondered? Or had the cashier made a mistake? For truly the pathway of a store manager is strewn with complaints!
Mrs. Larry flung him one of her prettiest smiles and plunged into the subject of their call.
"I don't suppose it's good business to tell your customers how to spend less money, but that is exactly what I have come for," she explained. "I have just wakened to the realization that while I am head of the purchasing department in our home, I know very little about food values. And I want to know more about the goods I buy in your store—how I can buy to best advantage. Would you mind giving me some pointers?"
Mr. Benton was plainly relieved.
"Indeed, I'll be very glad to give you all the information I can. If more women studied how to buy, we would have less complaints about overcharges and high prices. But I am afraid I can't give you much time this morning. Our busy hour is at hand. If you had come in between eight and nine, I could have taken you over the store and shown you how the wheels go round. In ten minutes our rush will set in, and last until one o'clock. Practically all of our customers crowd their marketing into those hours."
"How odd!" said Claire.
"I don't think it's odd," said Mrs. Larry. "I suppose every woman does just what we did this morning—stops to tie loose ends in the home, before starting to market."
"More telephone, I imagine," said Claire.
Mr. Benton nodded his head briskly.
"Right there you have struck one fundamental cause of the high cost of living—service! We employ five men to take orders in your home; one man to answer telephone calls, and a dozen delivery men. I am not criticizing the efforts of this firm to give its customers the best and promptest service. I am merely stating the cold facts when I say that order, telephone and delivery service is added to the cost of everything you buy.
"If the women of America would band together for the purpose of ordering efficiently, and thereby reduce the cost of delivery, they would enable grocers to sell at lower prices. Let me make this clear with an illustration:
"Mrs. A. is busy getting the children off to school when the order boy calls at her door. So she tells him to send her a pound of butter, a
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package of crackers and a dozen of oranges—whatever she happens to remember in the haste of the moment. She starts to get lunch and finds that there is no vinegar for the salad dressing, no rice for the soup. So she telephones to have these articles delivered 'special.' Her first order is already on the way by our first regular delivery. The 'special' wagon or boy is rushed around with her second order. During the afternoon she makes an apple pie for her husband's dinner, and discovers that the cheese box is empty. So she telephones again, and a second messenger or special wagon is dispatched to her home. Now, no matter how closely we may price butter or rice or cheese, this woman undoes our efforts to give her low prices by her inefficient system of ordering. She has spent ten cents in telephones, and she has made it necessary for us to keep extra help for her special orders.
"Each one of these belated orders is a small item in itself, but when I tell you that some of our customers order groceries from four to six times a day, you will understand what extra service amounts to. And when I add that on busy days, like Saturday or the day before Christmas, we send out anywhere from a thousand to fifteen hundred orders, you will have a better idea of what delivery service costs the housewives of America.
"Housewives could cut down this particular expense, which adds so greatly to the high cost of living, by marketing in a more systematic way. It is the poorest economy to buy in small quantities and at frequent intervals. To reduce your grocery bill, keep tabs on your pantry shelves; keep up your stock of staple groceries, just as a merchant must keep in stock the things you will want to buy. Make it a rule never to order more than once a day, and to avoid extra orders by telephone.
"Don't you think it's rather inconsistent for a woman to complain of the price we charge for eggs, when she deliberately adds five cents to the cost of a dozen by telephoning for them? Of course, in towns where the telephone service is unlimited, this is not such a big item. But unlimited telephone service is becoming less common each year.
"Another important factor in reducing the cost of groceries is explicit ordering. Do not tell the boy to bring you a box of sweet crackers, a package of raisins and a dozen good oranges. Be more definite. Name the brand and the size of the box in ordering crackers. The smaller the box the more you pay for crackers. Make it clear whether you want cooking raisins or table raisins. Stipulate the price per dozen for oranges. The order clerk who reads the slip, 'a package of wafers, a box of raisins and a dozen good oranges,' does not know your income, and doesn't care what it is. He will send you goods that will bring the firm the highest profit. And in this he is entirely justified. There is no reason why he should practise thrift for you.
"If possible, buy your groceries at the store in person. And come as early as you can. There are several good reasons for this advice. In the morning the clerks are fresh and interested in their work. They can help you in the selection of goods. During or after the day's rush they are too driven or tired to give the best service. Then, if you buy in person, you can see the size of the containers, and you will find there is a big saving in buying larger packages. Take the item of olives, for instance: You order by telephone a small bottle of olives. The clerk sends you a bottle selling for thirty cents. In a few days you order another thirty-cent bottle—sixty cents for two bottles of olives. For fifty-five cents you can get one large bottle, containing as much as the two smaller ones. Moreover, if you do not specify that you want queen olives, but leave the order to the discretion of the clerk, he will send you mammouth queen olives at thirty-eight cents, when you could buy the smaller queen olives for thirty cents. There is no difference in flavor, only in size, and as the larger olives can not be packed so closely, you really get less for your money.
"Moreover, if you come to the store, you see articles offered at 'special' prices, legitimate sales, due to the fact that the modern grocer of a chain of stores like the Dorlon stores has opportunities to buy at cut prices for cash. No delivery clerk has time to tell you about the 'specials' offered in the store each morning, and such information is not given over the telephone. But it is announced on placards all over the store, so that you will not miss it if you come in."
Mr. Benton glanced over Mrs. Larry's smartly tailored hat to the front of the store, which was rapidly filling up.
"I'm afraid I've talked too long. Perhaps I have bored you?"
"Not a bit," exclaimed Mrs. Larry. "I feel as if we had only glimpsed the real possibilities of reducing the cost of living by grocery knowledge. I wish our club could hear you talk."
"What sort of a club is it?" inquired Mr. Benton.
"Oh, it's not an organization and it has no name. It's just a few neighbors who are investigating the high cost of living—husbands and wives—we women investigate and our husbands help us to draw conclusions. I am sure the husbands would like to hear you talk. But I suppose you're always busy evenings?"
"Never too busy to be of service to my firm or to my customers."
"Then you will meet with us some evening?" asked Mrs. Larry eagerly.
"If you will tell me what you want me to talk about—yes."
"Oh, there is so much we want to know," said; Mrs. Larry. "The comparative cost of package and bulk goods, for instance."
"And adulteration," suggested Claire.
"Substitution is quite as important," added Mr. Benton.
"Oh, will you?" said Mrs. Larry.
"Yes, any night except Thursday. And, if you like, I'll bring a small exhibit with me."
"That will be splendid!" said Mrs. Larry. "Let's make it next Wednesday night. And now, I intend to put some of your policies into practise. I'm going to look up your 'specials.' My goodness gracious!" she added, conscience-stricken, "every word you say is true. I have not been in this store for more than a month."
Mr. Benton smiled and crooked his finger at a passing clerk.
"Show Mrs. Hall our specials for to-day. I think she'll be interested."
Claire and Mrs. Larry followed the clerk from counter to stand.
"This morning we are selling best eggs at thirty-seven cents a dozen. Yesterday you paid forty-one cents a dozen for the same eggs. To-morrow you may pay it again. To-day's drop in price is due to a glutted market. Those eggs are perfectly fresh, and will keep in your refrigerator for a week. Here are hams at nineteen cents a pound, ordinarily sold at twenty-two. This cut is due to the fact that our firm bought a carload direct from the packer. To-day you can buy a basket of sweet potatoes for nineteen cents. To-morrow they may be twenty or twenty-two."
Just at this moment an order boy called out: "Mrs. Blank, one quart of sweets."
"What do they cost a quart?" asked Claire.
"Ten cents," answered the clerk.
"And how much does the basket hold?"
"Five quarts."
Mrs. Larry looked startled.
"Then a customer pays ten cents for one quart, and nineteen cents for five quarts? Think of paying ten cents a quart when I could get them for four cents! I have been buying them by the quart because they don't keep well."
"Keep your sweet potatoes in a cool place and pick them over every day. When they show spots, boil them in their jackets, set them away in the refrigerator, and they will keep indefinitely after they are boiled," advised the clerk.
"We are having a special on certain brands of canned goods to-day—peas, tomatoes, apricots and sliced pineapple. Probably some canner found himself overloaded with certain vegetables and fruits, and our firm took advantage of the fact. If you can use a dozen cans, you will save thirty cents on the dozen, nearly three cents on each can. And you can mix your order in any way you like—three of this, four of that, two of another, etc."
"And you have 'specials' like this every day?" asked Mrs. Larry.
"Yes, sometimes the specials run a week. Others are only for one day."
"I am through with telephoning. Hereafter I shall order my groceries in person," announced Mrs. Larry.
Wednesday evening found the Nortons, the Moores and Claire Pierce waiting in Mrs. Larry's living-room for Mr. Benton, manager of the Dorlon store. On the reading table, Lena, fairly bristling with importance, was arranging the exhibit which had arrived from the store. This included two brands of canned peaches, cartons of rice, tea, sugar, crackers and flavoring extracts and various packages of irregular shape.
"Looks like a private pure food exhibit," commented Mr. Norton.
Mr. Benton proved an interesting and interested talker.
"Personal investigation and experimentation on the part of the housewife are desired by all conscientious tradespeople. In the case of the Dorlon Company, which operates a chain of thirty stores in Greater New York, the buyers desire to give customers the benefit of every possible price-saving. The managers of the stores are equally desirous of keeping customers posted on price changes and market values, but we can not force customers to take a lively interest in saving money, when they prefer to follow the line of least trouble and least resistance. Therefore, I am very glad to give you a few pointers on the subject of buying groceries.
"The principal topics in which housewives are interested are these: package versus bulk goods; cold storage versus fresh goods; adulteration versus substitution; honest and dishonest labels; premiums.
"To those of us who are in the business, the argument against package goods as increasing the cost of living is absurd. Goods must be prepared for delivery, either in the factory or in the store. The factory, with its labor-saving machinery, can do up dry groceries more rapidly and less expensively than our fastest clerks in the store. Perhaps there was a time when the housekeeper paid extra for containers. To-day she can buy certain package goods as reasonably, and sometimes more cheaply, than bulk goods.
"For instance, to-day we are selling three and a half pounds of the best granulated sugar in packages at twenty-four cents a package. Loose, you would pay eight cents a pound, or twenty-eight cents for three and one-half pounds. Exactly the same grade of coffee that we sell ground or pulverized in an air-proof package at thirty-three cents a pound would cost you thirty-five cents in bulk from the bin.
"Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule. For instance, I have here a package of rice at twelve cents—and exactly the same rice in the bulk for ten cents a pound. You can save two cents on the pound, if when the bulk rice is delivered in your kitchen you pour it into a container which prevents waste. Rice or any other cereal in a paper sack usually represents waste in the pantry because the sack is torn, and the cereal spills over the shelf.
"Here is a two-pound package of oatmeal at twelve cents. I can sell you the same oatmeal in bulk at five cents a pound. Here is a package of split peas, two pounds for twenty-four cents. The same peas loose sell at ten cents a pound.
"In such cases the superiority of the package goods depends entirely upon the way your servant handles the package. If she opens it carelessly, destroys the pasteboard top, or, in case of bottle goods like pickles, relishes, etc., she throws away the cork, then they lose the flavor or the goods become dusty, precisely as if you bought them in bulk.
"Train your servants to understand that containers are designed to keep out dust and to protect the flavor of the goods.
"Now for the crackers. Here are two cartons of soda crackers, moisture proof, sold at five cents each. And here is ten cents' worth of the same soda crackers in bulk. We will now count the actual crackers in the carton and in the sack."
Mr. Benton's interested circle drew closer.
The moisture-proof cartons yielded up forty-eight whole fresh, crisp crackers. When the bulk crackers were turned carefully into a large plate, it was found practically impossible to count them. More than a third had been broken in carriage, and there was a heavy sprinkling of cracker dust. Nor were the bulk crackers crisp or fresh in flavor. In graham crackers the difference was more pronounced. A ten-cent, moisture-proof package contained thirty unbroken crackers. A pound of bulk graham crackers, at nine cents, yielded twenty-three whole crackers and two broken ones. The difference in the flavor was marked.
"Understand," said Mr. Benton, "that the cartons or package crackers will not retain their flavor unless the housekeeper insists upon their being opened properly and kept tightly covered. For this reason the small tins of crackers are in the end most economical.
"Now for cold storage versus fresh goods. Meats, butter, eggs, fruits, etc., which were in A-1 condition when placed in cold storage are wholesome. But they should be used promptly after being taken out of storage. Housekeepers waste money when they pay the price of fresh goods for cold storage products. Last week absolutely fresh certified eggs were selling at seventy-two cents a dozen. Cold storage eggs should have sold at retail for thirty-four cents. I stepped into a rival grocery store on my way to business and found that a clerk had picked over the cold storage eggs and arranged all the large white ones attractively in a basket. These were marked, 'Special fresh eggs, 50 cents a dozen,' At the other end of the counter was a crate of brown eggs, with the placard, 'Cold storage eggs, 33 cents a dozen.' There was absolutely no difference between these two lots of eggs, except the coloring. No grocer could sell fresh eggs at fifty cents a dozen. This man did not have a certified egg in his store, and the customer who paid fifty cents a dozen for the white eggs wasted seventeen cents.
"Don't pay the price of fresh goods for cold storage products. Every grocer who sells cold storage products must hang in his store a placard to that effect, and if he misrepresents cold storage products as fresh, he can be prosecuted. Train him to tell you the truth.
"Adulteration is, to-day, less of a menace to the housewife than substitution. I will consider adulteration later, in connection with honest and dishonest labels.
"These two cans of peaches represent the dangers of substitution. You see, they are the same size, with equally attractive labels. This can, 'California Fruits,' sells for twenty-three cents. The other can, 'Table Fruits,' sells at seventeen cents. The difference lies in the flavor and richness of the sirup. The twenty-three-cent can has a heavy sirup and the fruit tastes a little like the preserves your mother used to make. The seventeen-cent can has a lighter sirup, and the fruit tastes more like fresh fruit stewed instead of preserved. The fruit was in equally good condition when canned. The difference is in the size of the peaches and the amount of sugar used only. The housekeeper gets exactly the same nutritive value for seventeen cents that she does for twenty-three cents—the difference is in the flavor.
"The cheaper peaches belong in the class of canned goods commonly known to housekeepers as 'seconds,' They are sold by unscrupulous grocers as A-1 goods, 'specially reduced,' And when a can of fruit which ought to sell for seventeen cents is 'specially priced' at twenty, the housekeeper wastes three cents. The same is true of canned vegetables, pickles, preserves, meats, soups, puddings, etc.
"When you ask for a standard brand of goods, and the dealer tells you he is out of that brand, but can give you something just as good—make sure that it is just as good. Test its weight, if it is package goods, or its flavor. If you have several similar experiences with the same man, regard him with suspicion. He is not carrying standard goods.
"Now for the vexed question of labels. Under the Pure Food and Drug Act, a manufacturer must set forth certain facts on his label, the percentage of preservatives and coloring matter employed, etc. A certain percentage of preservative is not harmful, and certain coloring materials are not injurious. Authorities differ as to the exact amounts, but I would advise no housewife to purchase highly colored preserves, condiments, relishes, pickles, etc., without studying the label carefully.
"A high-grade ketchup, for instance, carries this label: 'Tomato ketchup, preserved with one-tenth of one per cent. of benzoate of soda.'
"The housewife who buys this gets her money's worth.
"Here is a tricky label:
"'Ketchup
"'Made from portions of Tomato and Apple. Contains one-tenth of one per cent. benzoate of soda, one-hundredth per cent. color, and one-hundredth per cent. saccharine.'
"Note that it is called 'Ketchup,' not 'Tomato Ketchup,' The portions of tomato and apples used are the very refuse of the canning factory; skins, cores, rotten portions and trimmings, unfit for human consumption. Add to this sin, the manufacturer does not supply a single balancing pure and nutritious substance in his product. For sugar he substitutes saccharine. He colors the unwholesome mixture with a coal-tar preparation, and winds up by preserving it with benzoate of soda. This label tells the whole truth, and it should condemn his product in the eyes of every housewife—who takes time to read the label.
"Study your labels on potted meats, flavoring extracts, canned vegetables and cheese boxes. Don't pay the same price for cheese when the label reads 'Camembert Type' as you would pay for genuine imported Camembert. If you buy sausage in the package, look out for the phrase, 'prepared with cereal' or 'Cereal, five per cent.' The maker who introduces a starchy or cereal factor increases the water-holding capacity of the meat. The housekeeper who buys sausage of this sort at the price of pure meat sausage loses money in water and cereal.
"The difference between high-grade and low-grade flavoring extracts is not in the size of the bottle, but in the quality or flavor. In order to flavor her custard or icing, a housewife must use twice as much adulterated extract as pure.
"I would advise every housekeeper who buys goods in bulk to possess a pair of reliable scales. Weigh your bulk goods. If you use three and a half pounds of sugar a week, and a careless clerk gives you only three and a quarter or less, in fifty-two weeks you have been cheated out of thirteen pounds of sugar. Buy your apples, potatoes, etc., by weight. We weigh every basket of potatoes that leaves our store. They must run sixty pounds to the basket in medium-sized potatoes, like I have here. A basket is supposed to hold four pecks. 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 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. Have this coffee analyzed, and you will find that instead of pure Mocha and Java, the blend consists of Mocha, Java and Rio coffee, with chicory, which can be sold at a profit for twenty-five cents. Instead of getting the cup and saucer for nothing, the housekeeper is paying nine cents for them. Now understand, some housekeepers prefer Rio coffee at eighteen or twenty cents a pound, to Mocha and Java at thirty-four. The question at issue is not the flavor of the coffee, but the fact that every housekeeper must pay in some way for the premium 'presented' to her.
"I would advise all housekeepers to read the market reports of foodstuffs. Through these reports they can learn when the market is glutted with certain articles, like tomatoes, melons, apples, or oranges, when the price of potatoes is up and the price of eggs is down. As soon as a grocer discovers that a customer reads the market reports he will know better than to attempt any sharp practise in his dealings with her."
As Mr. Benton sat down, the other men glanced at one another significantly.
"This," said Mr. Moore, "is what I call an evening spent to good advantage."
And the three housekeepers, to say nothing of Miss Housekeeper-to-be, agreed enthusiastically, and beamed on Mr. Benton.