Consumer Food Dollar

Archive Report

Revolt Against High Prices of Food

Boycotting of supermarkets by housewives in the autumn of 1966 introduced an unexpected and, some say, irrational element into the complex network of food marketing practices that bear on the cost of feeding the American family. The reaction of the big stores was prompt. Many of them quickly knocked down prices of key grocery items, even as store officials protested that their margins of profit were already too slim. It remains to be seen whether the women's effort to bring economic pressure on the retailer—an apparently spontaneous movement which spread across the country with little sparking from established consumer organizations—will have a lasting effect on established food pricing mechanisms.

At the very least, the housewives' protest has served to remind ...

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