Milk Teeth
CONSUMING INTEREST
By LESLIE ADRIAN
A STORM in a feeding bottle has just been .successfully corked up by the Monopolies Commission, with only one or two voices raised in protest. Basically, the fuss was about dried milk, which a long wartime ago was obtainable for babies only as National Dried Milk, but is now more the monopoly (in the looser sense of the word—I should of course say oligopoly, but who wants to?) of two private-enterprise manu- facturers, Glaxo, who make Ostermilk, and United Dairies, who, through a subsidiary called Unigate, market Cow and Gate and Trufood. These two big companies seem to have gone to a lot of trouble to defend their practice of restricted outlets (registered pharmacists and certain favoured grocers only) and price maintenance.
As Professor Tibor Barna pointed out in yet another dissenting addendum (he was equally forthright in the petrol-retailing report), the support tacitly given by the Commission to these two manufacturers strengthens their position. The report, carefully restricted to its terms of reference so that comparison with other forms of supply is difficult, nevertheless makes it clear that the market for NDM has been shrinking in favour of privately manufactured and well- advertised brands, and that Nestle's Lactogen and Farley's Infant Food, which are neither re- stricted nor price-maintained, have a very small share of what is in effect an enclosed market. The wholesalers apparently work hand-in-glove with the manufacturers to prevent any supplies , getting to outlets who may reduce the price or use an infant food as a 'loss leader.'
The basic defence is quasi-medical and leans heavily on the presumption that a mother can obtain advice about baby care from a chemist's shop. Barna and the Consumer Council counter with the objection that this would be better given by a doctor or the welfare centre. The argu- ments for freeing distribution are that the stuff would be available more widely, more cheaply and that grocers would no longer labour under an unnecessary restriction. Apart from some not altogether well-founded mutterings about shelf- life and dated products, which most grocers are now accustomed to (they have always sold perishable foods), the two companies seem to be mainly concerned about distribution costs rather than consumer convenience. What about some trial and error here?
I once knew a nice young man who had a sales job in Paris—selling slices of Florida to American expatriates. Heaven knows what sort of swampy acres changed hands in those deals, but I was always surprised not only that the buyers bought 'sight unseen,' as the comical phrase goes, but that even the salesmen had never seen the wares they were so enthusiastically flogging.
It was Which? on the great Bahamas land boom that brought it all back to me (one would have thought people would recall Martin Chuzzlewit's troubles with the Eden Land Com- pany). Apart from the attractive lots that now all seem to be sold and have high price tags, what remains presents difficulties like bad roads, no main drainage, electricity or water supnly, low- lying swampy situations, a hot, humid summer and a feverish cost of living. The cheap gin (16s. a bottle) and cigarettes (5s. 3d. for fifty) seem to be the only consolation. What would Peck- sniff have said to that?
Football pool was a beautiful coining: it sounds just as if you should eventually draw out as much as you put in, as with premium bonds. But then gamblers are gullible: the very term punter has acquired the same ring as sucker. I have in front of me a direct-mail shot sent to a reader. It says: 'Beat the Pools: know before you post you've won!' It goes on: 'Sen- sational! Money Magnet will win for you every week!'
Unable to resist this claim, backed by another of 'Over £120,000 won by our clients last season,' I filled in the form and returned it to Planet Publications (Bristol) Ltd. But that was three months ago and I have heard nothing. Disappointing, because it all sounds so promis- ing: they even promise to return your money after three months if you don't win a first divi- dend, and the unsigned letters from pools firms are proof (Nobody can show you proof like this') that the Money Magnet works. If I owned this system you wouldn't catch me sharing it with strangers.
Mr Egon Ronay is truly in the motor in- dustry these days. First, BMC, then the AA and now Shell have sponsored guidebooks of his. The latest is a 25s. Guide to Currency Holidays, which I would have hoped were like tax holi- days. Not so. These are really holidays with too little currency. Austria, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Yugoslavia are covered, but the surprising thing is that entries for France, Italy and Spain are identical with those in the AA's Budget Holidays (members 10s. 6d.) published a couple of months ago, ex- cept that the bottom line on each page indicating a camping site has been filled in with details in the new book, and that some additions have been made—France now has Ajaccio, Benodet, Calvi, Canet-Plage, Concarneau and about a score of other additions. With the new book, eight countries for 25s. looks like being a better buy than three for 10s. 6d.
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