One of the first things to which this Commercial Economy Board turned its attention was wheat products, and quite naturally it seems now, the first thing they discovered was the continuous supply of fresh bread on the retailer's shelves. They saw that he sold, which meant that the bakers who supplied him were making more than they sold.
Look Into Bread
The Commercial Economy board at once undertook an investigation. It is one of the prettiest pieces of work that has recently been turned out in Washington. The board sent its agent to a number of leading bakers and wrote to over 400 others in all parts of the country in order to find out what their practice was. It was discovered that largely for competitive reasons these bakers kept the shelves of the bread retailer stocked fully with fresh bread. In doing this, they did not expect the retailer to sell the bread. Their point was that the retailer should always have enough of their bread on hand so that there would be no complaint on his part that he was not supplied. Any part of the bread that remained unsold, the baker took back when the next day's supply was delivered. The retailer, knowing that he would have more bread than he could sell, never required his customers to order ahead. His customers were trained, so far as bread was concerned, to toil not neither to spin, nothing to do but order at any hour of the day. 