MELBOURNE’S LOAF

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1923, Page 7

MELBOURNE’S LOAF

BAKERS’ HUGE PROFITS. ( Although leading bakers in some suburbs are now content with lOd. a 41b. loaf, the official and general price remains at lid (says the Melbourne “Age.”) At this figure the bakers have fixed what appears to be a permanent price. Ruling rates for other necessities rise and fall according to the state of the market, but bread is apparently immovable. Why is the standard price of lid so steadfastly maintained ? Do the bakers constitute such a closely-knit combination That they can afford to defy market prices and dictate their own terms to the consumers ?

Some time ago Mr E. E. Roberts, secretary of the Victorian Farmers’ Union, showed that out of the lid charged to the consumer the producer and miller received only 4>,d, leaving 6gd for the baker. Mr Roberts said recently that at present prices the farmer gets 3gd for the wheat contents of the 41b loaf, and the miller 3-4 d for gristing, making a total of 4d for division between these two interests. On these figures , there is the extraordinary balance of 7d remaining to the baker for every loaf sold. A correspondent suggested that the analysis should proceed further, and the public be informed what it costs the baker per loaf for wages, interest on capital, horse feed, repairs and maintenance of plant, firewood and coal, and such commodities additional to flour as are used in the making of bread. Such costs, of course, vary with every baker, and are governed very largely by the output. It would obviously be absurd to suggest that they amount to anything like 7d; it is stated that 4d is a most extraordinary estimate in respect of the average bakery. The usual plea made on behalf of the bakers is that wages are high and the cost of distribution appalling. Why, if bakers are groaning under the burden of Wages Board determinations, do many of them offer drivers 10s a week more than the stipulated rates, and why, if the: cost of distribution is so tremendous, do they themselves assess the service at a loaf? It is stated that many bakers cheerfully pay men employed on delivery carts 10s a week over the award rates, experience proving that another cart on the round brings in very much more in additional profits than the cost of maintaining the turnout and paying the wages. If people go to the shops for their bread they are charged 10gd. This proves either that the continual plaint about the huge cost of delivery is all moonshine, or that a charge of 10gd per loaf over the counter is rank extortion. The cost of delivery, whatever it is, could easily be cut in half. Bakers, who have shown special aptitude for “organising” in other directions, could with very little trouble organise this branch of their businesses, cutting out the duplication that occurs in every street in every suburb. Why do we find bakers’ carts in suburbs anything from five to eight miles removed from their headquarters when there are bakers, charging exactly the same prices, operating on the spot? The only explanation is that delivering bread, like selling it over the counter, pays very handsomely, however great the distance to be covered.

The mystery of where the 7d goes to remains unexplained. The producers and the millers do not get it; the only intermediary between them and the consumers is the baker. Perhaps the Royal Commission on the High Cost of Living will probe the matter. .1 he lesults "should be vastly interesting.