Skimped Milk
CONSUMING INTEREST
By LESLIE ADRIAN
Well, the cat seems to like Long Life milk, but the human beings in the family are less enthusias- tic about the boiled taste imparted by Ultra Heat Treatment. They are not very pleased, either, to have so many bottles of milk filling the fridge all the time. It leaves less room for the manzanilla and champagne. It also leaves me a little suspicious (in the well-known Adrian manner) that the inventors of this everlasting Metropolitan milk are the same company that is trying to space out its deliveries.
Now, if the consumer were really the boss, I would go elsewhere for my milk but, in spite of the fact that a massive United Dairies depot stands three streets away, I am obliged to accept Express. Not that there is any discernible difference in quality or taste. It would be foolish to expect any after knowing what happens to the product of the cow when it reaches the, bottling plant: pasteurised, separated and recom- bined in various forms, it cannot bear much resemblance to milk as Mother Nature makes it. So 1-see little to fuss about in not being given any choice of dairy. Their methods are all the same so their milk is all the same, which is the reason why the National Dairymen's Association and the .Milk Marketing Board can both behave as if milk was one product and not many. Which? seems to believe that the customer has a choice. Its November issue says: 'It would be possible to cut down the cost of delivery by restricting your choice of dairy—allowing only one dairy to deliver in each street or area. It is at least ten years since I saw two private enter- prise dairies competing for custom on the door- step. Restrictive agreements have been going and growing since the end of official zoning threatened to bring back that bugbear of the dairy companies, competition. And the Mono- polies Commission condones them. Rightly, I suppose, because such competition is of the wasteful sort. But let's not pretend that the dairy- men are doing any of this for our good, even though we are constantly enjoined to be grateful for being endowed with a service denied to half the population of the United States, the whole of France, and for all I know two-thirds of the families in La Paz.
We have had an official report from the Min. of Ag., composed by a Milk Marketing Board retired general manager, that could be described as milk and water. Mr J. L. Davies milked as much out of the facts as possible ('service . . in this country is very good. Prices . . . are reasonable') and watered down his remarks with strategically placed inverted commas ('The private
dairyman and the Co-Operatives "compete" ...': meaning that they don't). In the end it boils down to pay more or get worse service, and Which? not surprisingly found that either alternative was unpleasing to the housewife.
Well, if they can't delivera pinta day, they can hardly expect us to drink one.
The more bcards you see about, the tougher the competition gets in the shaving business. Gillette hardly changed their safety razor or its blades for thirty years (they altered the shapes of the holes in the blade and made a one-piece version of the razor) but in the past few they have tried various refinements to the razor, including the nine micrometer settings (1 think it was called Dial-a-Shave at one time: if not it should have been), the stainless blade and all its descendants, including the glittering Aristocrat. That appeared only this year, but already another launch has taken place, of the Techmatic razor with a rotating strip blade.
Schick tried to be quick and slick with an announcement the day before Gillette paraded a giant-sized Techmatic at the Savoy, with bright lights, recorded fanfares and boeuf Stroganoff on the hoof (ours). But Schick had no price and no stocks to talk about. Gillette did. The price was quite a talking point : 42s. and 8s. 11d, for a six-blade refill. The British price is double the US price, for reasons that the company was not keen to discuss, except for a 50 per cent retail margin. They seemed to believe that men will pay this stiff price for 'a new shaving experience.' As Mr Henry Garnett, Gillette's managing director, said, Christmas is coming, and this gadget will go admirably into the stocking of the man who has everything. Except a beard, 1 presume.
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