Philadelphia Ghetto Study Finds Merchants Are Not Gouging the Poor

A study made by Temple University and the Academy of Food Marketing of St. Joseph’s College here has refuted frequent charges that the poor in ghetto areas of Philadelphia are being gouged by merchants who charge higher prices than prevail in higher income neighborhoods and sell inferior merchandise, the Jewish Exponent reports. The study was administered by Dr. Donald F. Dixon, associate professor of marketing at Temple, and Daniel J. McLaughlin, Jr., assistant professor of food marketing at St. Joseph’s College. It compared prices charged by stores located in the North Philadelphia “inner city” with prices charged in upper income areas throughout the city.

“The research was initiated after the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice found that rioting occurred in major cities because the poor were against persons who allegedly represented the principal form of their oppression, namely white merchants and principally Jews who charged high prices or sold inferior goods,” the Exponent reported. The Dixon and McLaughlin studies failed to substantiate hypotheses that prices rose when welfare checks were distributed and that supermarket prices were higher in low income areas than in high income areas. “It was found that some products in the market basket were slightly higher in price at the end of the week, but an equal number were lower, so that there was no appreciable over-all change,” the Exponent reported.

The survey noted that low income families, because of lack of mobility and for other reasons, make more purchases in small stores than in supermarkets and may therefore pay higher prices for some products “but this result does not imply economic discrimination against the poor.” The Dixon-McLaughlin research substantiated a survey of local merchants made by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Philadelphia which found that ghetto merchants “generally offer sound merchandise at reasonable prices and that exceptions are rare,” the Exponent reported.