Sandwich-Making Challenge

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31306, 28 February 1967, Page 3

Sandwich-Making Challenge

(N.Z. Press Association) WHANGAREI, Dec. 27. The Consumer Council obviously did not have the vaguest idea of what it was talking about when it suggested that the only legitimate increase in the price of sandwiches was ,38d, Mr J. P. Sullivan, a Whangarei delicatessen manager, said today. Mr Sullivan said whoever suggested the make-up of that increase had totally ignored

any of the increased costs which had justified an increase. He challenged the chairman of the, council (Mr G. E. Wood) who made the statement reported last week to a sandwich-making study, with all the costs that a shopkeeper had to consider being assessed. But Mr Sullivan said he put conditions on the contest. Mr Wood, or whoever was responsible for the test would make them in Mr Sullivan’s shop, with the most modern equipment, but they had to be the quality which Mr Sullivan demanded in his normal product. It was impossible to make a sandwich of good standard using a quarter of a pound

of butter to a one pound loaf, he said. He used considerably more, with corresponding specifications for the whole sandwich. “This is a genuine challenge. Obviously this man has not taken into account other factors, such as the rise in freights, the general wage order, telephone and postal charges coming shortly, and the possibility of another wage order now being sought by the butchers’ employees,” he said. Mr Sullivan said he would be glad to demonstrate the art of making a high standard of sandwich in front of anyone, even the housewives’ association. “It is ridiculous for people such as Mr Wood to make

such statements without the slightest knowledge of the facts of life in the retail outlets. “1 would be delighted to challenge Mr Wood or anyone else, to show them what the real costs are, and how they are computed. The only condition I make is that sandwiches must be made to my specification. “It might stop such silly statements going into the papers, and giving people the idea we are making enormous profits. I hope Mr Wood will accept this as a genuine challenge—we have nothing to hide and will be glad to have a chance of public refutation of such a silly statement,” he said.