ATTACHMENTS THE PUBLIC DOES NOT KNOW THEREFORE THERE IS NO PROTECTION IN THE PHRASE "When Goods Usable for the Same General Purpose Are Available to the Public from Other Sources." THE PUBLIC DOES NOT KNOW THEREFORE THERE IS NO PROTECTION IN THE PHRASE "When Goods Usable for the Same General Purpose Are Available to the Public from Other Sources." FOOD TOWN PHARMACIES, INC. "Precively As Your Doctor Prescribed” Phone DI 4-2666 Florida at Margaretta - 33rd Street BATON ROUGE, LA. •MRS JOHN CONSUMER Address Dase (3) BUTISOL. SODIUM 64 THE PUBLIC DOES NOT KNOW THEREFORE THERE IS NO PROTECTION IN THE PHRASE "When Goods Usable for the Same General Purpose Are Available to the Public from Other Sources." 11.32 Florida at Margaretta - 33rd Street BATON ROUGE, LA For MRS JOHN CONSUMER Address Dose DEXTRO- AMPHETAMINE ē AMO BARBITAL #2 DISP: # 100 SIG: AS DIRECTED 3.46 "Precisely As Your Doctor Prescribed" Phone DI 4-2666 BATON ROUGE, LA. THE PUBLIC DOES NOT KNOW THEREFORE THERE IS NO PROTECTION IN THE PHRASE "When Goods Usable for the Same General Purpose Are Available to the Public from Other Sources." FOOD TOWN PHARMACIES, INC. Florida at Margaretta 33rd Street Dase (1): R BOATS Be APS 份 For MRS JOHN CONSUMER Address SUMER Date PENTO BARBITAL Disp #100 SIG: AS DIRECTED M.D. Reg. No. BATON ROUGE, LA. ·MRS JOHN CONSUMER Address R 98 5/ JOHN DOE FOOD TOWN PHARMACIES, INC. "Precizely As Your Doctor Prescribed" M. D. FOMRS JOHN CONSUMER For DEXAMYL SPANSULES (3.K,F) #1 DISP # 100 SIG: AS DIRECTED Dave (8) DEXTRO-AMPHETAMINE DISP: # 100 SIG: AS DIRECTED 3.18 Mr. FORT. Just to review our qualifications to testify, our company was organized in 1955. It was a very small company with one store. At that time Food Town Ethical Pharmacies, Inc., operated under price-fixing fair trade in the State of Louisiana, which was subsequently declared unconstitutional in the Schwegmann case. company has operated both under fair trade price fixing similar to the price-fixing powers in the Quality Stabilization Act, and we have also operated under the free trade atmosphere which exists in Louisiana now. We have grown from 1 store doing a few dollars a day in volume until we have 11 stores now doing over $6 million a year. I would like to submit this information as a background to my testimony, not that it has any personal implications, but to show the committee that the small businessman can succeed even better under a free enterprise system than under a system by which the manufacturers are empowered to fix the price. Where manufacturers are empowered to do it, price fixing breeds conspiracies and it creates an atmosphere in the market in which almost everyone seems to feel that in spite of the Sherman Antitrust Act that it is legal for businessmen to understand each other on a retail or wholesale price. We are not a pine-board operation. We pay the highest salaries in our area. And we sell only nationally advertised products. We refrain from using private labels, because in many cases we can't stand on the efficacy or the quality of that merchandise. We feel that any allegation that has been made that this bill is necessary to protect trademarks has absolutely been disproven by the famous names which have never used price fixing in any way, such as Libby's, Carnation, Kellog, Borden, the Ford Motor Co., Del Monte, Hormel, Lipton, and thousands of other trademarks which are accepted by the people as being the highest quality, even though these manufacturers have never resorted to price fixing on the distributor, wholesale, or retail level. There is a danger to a small business or any business involved in this bill because it affects the balance sheet, that is, when you submit a balance sheet and your inventory is your principal asset, and that inventory can be taken by a manufacturer under the provisions of this bill without even one penny in controversy, using the Federal courts to do it, then there is some question in our minds that when that balance sheet and inventory is the biggest item the bank might say, well, that inventory is based on your adherence to the prices fixed by these manufacturers, and since you may not do that, then the assets represented by your inventory are questionable. We also object to the fact that this bill empowers manufacturers not only to fix retail but wholesale and broker prices. It also empowers a manufacturer to become a censor, in paragraph (8) (a) and (8) (c), because he is permitted to control the advertising and merchandising techniques of both distributors and retailers as well as wholesalers. There are plenty of laws in effect now to enforce and clean up what is called an unsatisfactory condition in the retail market in which small businessmen are in danger of becoming bankrupt. We feel |