Cocsuming Interest
Dron's Big Deal
By LESLIE ADRIAN
SUMMER, sales will soon be y-cumen in, loud sing cynics' —who know all about the infamous trickery of those stores which buy 'sale lines' to \ foist upon the bargain-hunt-
ing housewife as 'genuine reductions,' crossing out with dramatic slashes of red those prices that never were. But save your poor feet, house- wives. There are other means of benefiting from genuine reductions.
Did you know that your mild, green Fairy liquid at 2s. 6d. the bottle of about three-quarters of a pint costs you something like 27s. a gallon? But you can buy liquid detergent by the gallon for half that? You didn't? Let me tell you about the Dron plan.
The Dron organisation is a wholesaling, bulk- buying agency that has made its profits for the last quarter-century supplying schools, hospitals, colleges and hotels with cleaning materials, household linen, kitchen stocks and garden gear. Instead of paying the standard 10d. to Is. for a piece of reasonable quality, decently scented toilet soap, Dron's customers get it for 50. if they buy three dozen, or for as little as 4d. if they buy a gross. And the news for large families on small budgets is that Dron do deal with indi- vidual customers and not just the big purchasers.
I have just been looking at their summer, 1963, price list. Compared with 1957, many items are cheaper (electric light bulbs, for instance), and most have not risen in price, or only a few pence. Over this period, by contrast, the Index of Retail Prices rose from 106 to 122, or about 15 per cent. Overall, Dron's price change has been downwards.
Mr. H. lmrie Swainston, chairman of John Dron Ltd. (Mountview House, 6-8 Highgate High Street, London, N6), calls himself a crusader against inflation, and has every inten- tion of 'making a dent in the retail trade.' He is one of those unorthodox spirits who refuse to believe that prices must always and inevitably move upwards, which is also why he is firmly against resale price maintenance.
What are the snags? First, the customer has to buy quantity to get the price reduction. Secondly, there is no choice. The items avail- able from Dron have been selected by the demand over the years of the hotel and catering trades. But they are none the worse for that,
because the shrewd buyers in these businesses want value for money. This is why quality standards are fairly high. Before includ- ing sheets in their list the Dron organisation asked twenty leading firms to send in their hardest-wearing sheets. These were then tested by the Retail Trading Standards Association to find out their durability in terms of the number of launderings divided into the price. A real test to destruction.
The Dron bulk liquid detergent (with which no tulips are provided) is re-analysed every year by the Institute of Public Health and Hygiene. The bed linen and towelling is bought from firms with household names (which do not appear in the catalogue). The lamp bulbs and other goods may not bear brand names, but have- come off the production lines of firms who branded wares would be dearer. The catalogue's. introduction says, 'We believe . . consumers' want goods made to exacting standards at reasonably low prices and . are not.interested in stunts, gift coupons, television advertising and other meretricious attractions.' I have quoted out of context. Mr. Swainston's company is not naïve, and knows that too many people are not really on their toes when it comes to buyin&. standard goods, and will fall far too easily (Of `meretricious attractions' and good sales talk, and never count the cost. But if You want to save, six shillings in the pound, here is one way °I doing it.
Nothing is easier than to take a `comprehen' sive' guide (the publisher's word, not mine) like Denys Parsons's What's Where in London (Michael Joseph, 7s. 6d.) and demonstrate hoW much more comprehensive it could be. The challenge is even sharper when the index lists under 'S' sludge manure, smoke bombs, smorrebrod, snails, snakes, snuff and social clubs for girls. No doubt Mr. Parsons and his readers will derive much amusement from such incongruous catalogues, and even more from discovering phillumeny, fromology and tegestology (match; box, cheese-label and beer-mat collecting) finding out where to buy shives and tre; Readers of the first edition two years ago 'Nil' indeed be accustomed to all this. They and the users of this new, third edition will be pleased to find that the subject index has been cross' indexed with names of shops and institution' and that there is a simple map with C°' ordinates to help the stranger find his way to various continental butchers and bakers, if n°t to a candlestick-maker. There is also an extra chapter on eating out in London—a good 115',; but I would have welcomed the inclusion °,1 some of the salt-beef bars that have improve, the quality of quick, cheap eating in cent°, London (or at least the Nosh Bar itself, in Gres" Windmill Street).
As a large part of the market for this poc- ket
paperback will be among visitors to Londn1'. a better coverage of emergency services, esPecrt ally repairs of all kinds, is needed. I could no find a single invisible-mending service liste3 (there is one in Shaftesbury Avenue), nclf,e while-you-wait shoe repairer. Many of lbf things can be found in the repair section:'d Selfridges' basement. Again, London Housen, Services have been 'Unaccountably overlookeovr but there is a good list of other services :Ar, home and garden. The ground covered by Parsons's little guide is, in fact, more remarka'oi than ever. With this and a current coPY What's On no resident or visitor need feel at loss in London, given enough cash.
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