BUTTER UP FIVE CENTS.
Creamery Trust Boosts Price From 30
to 35 Cents a Pound.
"What! Creamery butter at 35 cents a pound!" exclaimed a woman at the city market last night. "Well, you had better just give me half pound, instead of a pound."
"You had better take two pounds, madam," said the clerk. "A half pound will cost you 20 cents, while you can get two pounds for 65 cents."
"When did butter go up?" asked the shopper, after she had decided that it would be a matter of economy to buy two pounds.
"Today," said the clerk. "We got notice from the creameries today that the best butter would be advanced today. We have been selling it for 20 cents, you know."
"What is the cause of it going up?" asked the shopper.
"Can't say," said the clerk. "More money for the creameries, I s'pose. They claimed to us that cream was scarce, and blamed it all on the dairymen, and the dairymen lay it on the cows."
"It's a shame the way these trusts are putting up the prices," said the woman, indignantly. "You might give me a dozen eggs. How are you selling them?"
"Twenty-five cents a dozen, two dozen for 45 cents," said the clerk.
"Eggs have gone up too, then?" asked the woman.
"Yes," said the clerk. Went up today. The commission men blame it all on the helpful hen. They say she's getting lazy, and the supply of eggs is short."
"Well, I think I'll look at another place and see how they are selling eggs," said the shopper. "I can't afford to pay these high prices."
She visited all the other stalls at the market, pricing butter and eggs, but she found the prices the same everywhere.
"And you'd better buy here, too, madam," said one clerk. "Because your grocer won't give you the benefit of two cents off if you buy two pounds of butter, or two dozen eggs."
