Coffee in Retrospect: "Coffee Sales Freeze is Near" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Beginning at midnight Saturday, coffee sales to consumers will be halted for a week to give grocers an opportunity to fill up gaping spaces on their shelves.

State OPA authorities have been advised by coffee experts that even coffee that has been packed in vacuum tins will not keep fresh indefinitely, that it may turn stale in anywhere from a month to a year. In many cases, the first two or three cups of coffee made from a can of vacuum packed coffee that has been hoarded for more than a month will taste fresh but the remainder will be stale because of the oil in the coffee bean turning rancid.

Persons having hoarded coffee would be denied additional quantities until the coffee in their possession is reduced to comply with regulations.

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Ed's Note: Coffee in Retrospect is a reprint column prepared by Coffee Monitor and Poor Farmer blog to provide context for the current global coffee trade by republishing news articles from the past. In this column, we intend to reprint archived prints by converting images into electronic file formats with careful conformity to originals and, whenever applicable and possible, we provide links to the sources of the information. Meanwhile, responsibility for the contents lies solely with the authors and the views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect our opinions.

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"Coffee Sales Freeze Is Near" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Milwaukee Journal

Thursday, November 19, 1942

Beginning at midnight Saturday, coffee sales to consumers will be halted for a week to give grocers an opportunity to fill up gaping spaces on their shelves.

Grocers have not had a pleasant time in recent weeks, and they are expectantly looking forward to the beginning of coffee rationing on Nov. 29.

Housewives, tipped off weeks ago by Federal Price Administrator Leon Henderson as to the rationing date, have been scurrying from one store to another looking for coffee. The more aggressive women have been able to build up hoards of as much as a hundred pounds, and it is fairly certain that they will be rewarded for their greed by having most of the coffee turn stale.

State OPA authorities have been advised by coffee experts that even coffee that has been packed in vacuum tins will not keep fresh indefinitely, that it may turn stale in anywhere from a month to a year. In many cases, the first two or three cups of coffee made from a can of vacuum packed coffee that has been hoarded for more than a month will taste fresh but the remainder will be stale because of the oil in the coffee bean turning rancid.

Action on Hoarders

Russell Wilcox, state food rationing representative, said Thursday that persons having hoarded coffee would be denied additional quantities until the coffee in their possession is reduced to comply with regulations. He said each consumer must retain in his sugar rationing book, for later surrender, a coffee stamp for each pound of coffee he has in excess of one pound.

The government is appealing to consumers' patriotism to abide by this procedure, since consumers are not required to register for coffee. It is possible that later all consumers will be asked to declare how much coffee they had on hand on Nov. 28.

For the five week period from Nov. 29 to Han. 3, Stamp No. 27 in the ration book may be used by any adult or young persons 15 years or older for the purchase of one pound of coffee. No. 27 is designated as the first coffee stamp because it is most easily detached.

Coffee stamps in the book of consumer whose age is shown on his book as 14 years or younger are not valid, and they remain attached until War Ration Book 2 is issued. This means a person, to be eligible for coffee, must have reached 15 at the time of the registration for sugar last May.

Warns of Penalties

Penalties will be imposed where coffee stamps are missing from the books of young, ineligible persons, Don T. Allen, state OPA director, warned Thursday in a letter to all rationing boards. Allen said that for each coffee stamp illegally removed from a child's book two coffee stamps will be removed from the book of the parent or the person legally responsible for the child.

Complaints were made to Allen Thursday that drivers for firms that sell coffee from house to house had already removed as many as eight "coffee" stamps from sugar rationing books in return for coffee, and that some of the stamps were removed from the books of children under 15. Allen warned that it is illegal for anyone to remove coffee stamps before the actual beginning of coffee rationing and he cautioned housewives not to permit the removal of these stamps. Persons holding books with stamps that have been illegally removed may have trouble getting Book No. 2 he said.

Comparatively few housewives have hoarded coffee. Most of them have been lucky to get enough for normal use at breakfast and dinner and some haven't had any coffee for weeks. In most neighborhoods the word has been passed around quickly when there has been coffee available at the neighborhood stores.

Doled Out by Grocers

Storekeepers who know their customer have saved coffee for them and have told "strangers" they had none. In other stores, especially the larger, more impersonal markets, it has been a case of first come, first served and this has angered steady customers.

Grocers have kept their occasional coffee supplies under the counters and have doled it out in half pound lots. One steady customer in a large upper east side market upbraided the storekeeper the other day when he did not serve her coffee ahead of a line of about a dozen women who were awaiting their coffee.

When the impatient woman finally got coffee she rebuked the grocer for selling her only half a pound instead of a pound and the grocer told her sharply that if he had not rationed it in half pound quantities to the women ahead of her she wouldn't  have got any coffee. Many grocers have expressed resentment that customers they had never seen before come in and ask only for coffee. Rationing will be a blessing to all concerned, they sigh.

There is enough coffee in Wisconsin and enough on the way to assure retailers of getting enough to supply consumers at the rationed rate, said Wilcox. The OPA hopes consumers will buy fresh coffee by the week to make possible a gradual, orderly flow of the product. For instance, where there are three or four adults in a family, it is hoped that this family will not use all of its coffee coupons at once, but will spread out its purchases as much as possible.

Retailers and wholesalers need not register for coffee. A retailer who sold less than 2,000 pounds of coffee in September will be entitled to an inventory of one pound for each $10 of gross sales of all meats, groceries, fruits, vegetables and similar products during the same month.

"Institutions" to Register

Institutional users of coffee must register at their local rationing boards Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. An institutional user is defined as "an establishment using roasted coffee in the preparation of a beverage." so this includes hotels and restaurants. The records of these users will be transferred to all local boards in Milwaukee county Friday from Board 40-3, which has been handling all sugar rationing.

Institutional users who never registered for sugar must register for coffee at the boards having jurisdiction over their place of business. All institutional users will get as much coffee from Nov. 22 to Jan. 31 as they had in September and October, which represented a cut of 35% from the amount used in September and October, 1941. Some restaurant men here complain that the cut now amounts to more than 35% because of an increase in business.

After Jan. 31 institutional users will get coffee in regular two month allotments.