ECHO
Exactly thirty years ago in this country we were concerned about the rise of food prices. I wrote about such a sentiment locally on Friday March 30, 1973. That which I wrote still holds true more than a quarter of a century later.
One that day our President, that would have been President Richard M. Nixon, had slapped a top on meat prices.”and there had been a great deal of pro-and-con talk concern n the general subject of food prices.”
I was a talking with the manager of a local food store and I took the approach that I did not think food prices were too high when one compared them to the price some other items.
Then, in l973 he pointed out something which, to me, still holds true among many people I know. He pointed out that, in his experiences , the people who complain the most were those who seem to specialize in buying non-essentials. “If you checked their purchases.”he said, “you would find that about one third of their purchases might be called groceries and the rest will be non-food items.” They think of their ”food” bill as made up of all the money spent at the grocery store. Their concept of food also means foods which have been wholly or partly prepared, processed to a certain preferred level and then packaged in a sturdy, four-color, dye-cut carton with a plastic window for customer to get a peek at part of what they are buying.
Now, in 2003 it is even easier to buy other than food items as well as specialty foods of all types, hardware store, fish market, bakery, the local Five-and-Ten... now Dollar Stores, department store or multi-purposed news stand kiosk. Think of the variety of such items commonly purchased: paper supplies, hardware items, electrical essentials, drugs, cameras., fancy candy and cookies, toys, books, magazines, tapes, discs, kitchen appliances, pet food and medications, cleaning preparations and laundry supplies. The list is endless, and when all it added up as being spent for groceries, you can see that the final tally is lopsided and not all food costs by any means. In March of 1973, I quoted a shopper as saying: “It cost me $36.00 to get out of the supermarket last night!” Oh, happy days!
Supply and demand ,of course, play a vital part in food pricing. There are also higher costs of transportation and precessing. It is always a point of potential panic for politicians and a headache for consumers.
Let's try to be more aware of way in which we falsely accuse the farmers and good dealers by counting non-food purchases as food costs.
A.L.M. March 30. 2003 [c449wds]
