Food By The Month

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31597, 7 February 1968, Page 2

Food By The Month

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MERLE NOWLAND)

SYDNEY.

Deep - freeze salesmen in Sydney have taken advantage of the high cost of family food by providing schemes which allow people to purchase bulk supplies of frozen foods together with their freezers, and to pay in monthly instalments.

For prices ranging from $9.80 to $l6 a week the firms supply a freezer and deliver supplies of frozen food every two or three months. The menu ranges from grilling steak and chicken to waffles and strawberries. The customer’s monthly payments cover the cost of the food and the hire-purchase payments on the freezer. Most of the “freezer food plans” also provide groceries and such items as soap, toilet paper and toothpaste.

A typical two-montb offering includes 181 b of grilling steak, 61b of braising steak, four 31b beef roasts, 181 b mince, 61b eorned silverside, 121 b gravy beef, 41b ox kidney, four 31b lamb roasts, 201 b sausages, 121 b lamb chops, four 31b pork roasts, 61b pork chops, 61b veal chops, 121 b roasting chicken, 61b fish, 51b prawns, 401 b of vegetables, 12 tins frozen orange juice, 6 packets of waffles, 51b strawberries and one dozen spring rolls.

With this goes 61b of tea, lib instant coffee, 321 b sugar. 21b salt, 3 tins each of tomato, vegetable and mushroom soups, four tins of beans, 6 packets of cornflakes, 24 ounces of rolled oats, 211 b peanut butter, two large tins of jam, half a gallon of cooking oil, 3 packets of washing powder, 1 gallon of detergent, 31b of cheese, half a gallon of pickles, 12 rolls of toilet tissue, three bottles of tomato sauce, 8 bars of bath soap, half a gallon of vinegar, vegemite and toothpaste. The weekly cost is $12.88,

and at Sydney prices is remarkable.

Most of the freezers purchased under the schemes cost between $550 and $9OO, and the repayments are spread over four to five years. From $2 a week goes towards the freezer repayment

Once the freezer has been paid for, the customer may continue to purchase food indefinitely at wholesale prices. A salesman said that the profit came when, after the freezer had been paid for, the customer continued to buy food for a number of years. Another said that the wholesale supply of bulk food at very reasonable cost left little profit and that the price of the freezers made the scheme worth-while. Some firms sell only freezers but arrange food deliveries for its customers from food suppliers. Other firms appear to be concentrating on supplying food rather than on selling freezers. One says that if cash is paid for the freezer the savings on the food supplies increase.