lady grocer attacks apathy in the groups . many shops still ugly and dirty not keen on promotions they think group trading means a comfortable living for years . Mrs Esther Beddis and her husband Roy are grocers on the Fairfield housing estate , near Fareham , Hampshire . they are enthusiastic members of star value service . Mrs Beddis is outspoken about group trading , but more outspoken about some of the retailers who are in a group and merely dabble with this form of trading . for some time , she says , I have been worried about the future of many independent retailers who have joined voluntary groups and , after a few months of membership , have been disappointed that increased turnover has not come to them . they have become discouraged with their lot and retailing in general and make no efforts to pull themselves out of this rut . this state exists because many independent grocers soon forget the reasons they joined a group - and they forget their obligations . they seem to think that the trade owes them something because they have taken the first steps of joining a group ; hanging an illuminated sign in their window ( very rarely illuminated after dark ) and spasmodically slap various bills on their windows announcing special offers . pipe dreams . all this , they think , will double their turnover in a few months so that they and their families can live in comfort in years to come . many with such pipe dreams have already gone further downhill and , sometimes , out of business . the others have learned their lesson in time and are now doing well . to cite their own case , Mrs Beddis told the grocer of their experiences in this respect . nothing startling . they took a small grocery shop on the housing estate back in 1947 . for many years they jogged along happily , without anything startling happening to their trade . to put it in her own words : we did not see any real change in the grocery world as nothing ever happened to change our trading progress . this idyllic state of affairs existed until March , 1960 - not so long ago - when the couple began to notice that some of their customers were no longer coming in , but were making the 3 d bus ride into neighbouring Fareham and buying a week &apos;s groceries at the recently opened supermarkets and large multiples there . then the co-operative store - just two doors away from them - started cutting prices and making many special offers . the Beddises &apos; turnover dropped by &amp;pound;280 a week and kept sliding . fortunately , they decided quickly to do something about it and joined the buying group operated by William Avens and Co , the Portsmouth wholesalers . the company immediately advised them to change from counter service to self-selection . the cost of conversion , said Mrs Beddis was negligible . we used the existing shelves and fixtures . up went turnover . through the medium of better pricing and easier service turnover quickly rose by &amp;pound;50 . in November , 1960 , they joined the star value service group , formed in the Portsmouth area under William Avens - by then a Misselbrook and Weston subsidiary . immediately , special offers were started and they were given more assistance with ideas for efficient merchandising and profitable promotions . even so , although business slowly increased and turnover steadily rose until it was around &amp;pound;500 by September this year , they still felt the need to enlarge the shop to display and sell to better advantage . this posed special problems concerning future prosperity . would it be worth while expanding - as to ascertain what lay ahead in relation to increased business was most difficult ? they finally decided to go ahead . the costly item . doubling the selling space to 700 sq ft by adding a new section of over 300 sq ft was not to be the greatest expense . it was the new fixtures and fittings to fill this space that would be costly . but Roy Beddis solved this problem by building all the new sectional shelving , eight dump bins , and the large gondola from materials he bought for a total of &amp;pound;50 . the new self-service refrigerator cost &amp;pound;200 and the alterations to the building cost &amp;pound;1,000 . all in all , total cost was &amp;pound;1250 . up curtain ! after the painters had left , three of Avens &apos; men put the finishing touches to the new shop , but all this time business was as usual with the alterations hidden by curtains . the curtains were drawn back on September 21 and the response was immediate . the first week &apos;s takings up to the present show an increase of &amp;pound;100 per week - making well over &amp;pound;600 per week . when more money is available , Mr and Mrs Beddis will extend the shop even further and take in the present storeroom . we must take the burden out of everyday shopping . as all retailers know , Mrs Beddis goes on , customers do n&apos;t come to look at a pretty shop . but a pretty shop does lend itself to cleanliness and brightness . not only is it these two things that customers want , but they also want well-priced special offers and we private retailers must take the burden out of everyday shopping and make it as easy as we can for these shoppers in case we lose their custom . direct promotions . one facet of in-store trading often overlooked , she goes on , is special promotions . our wholesaler often arranges these for star value members and , in addition , the large manufacturers will often assist with a direct promotion . the first week in October , we ran the Brooke Bond win-a-toy competition - ideal for children living on the Fairfield Estate . Mr Hawkins , the Brooke Bond rep , spent the entire week in the shop , and with attractive display material and toys attracting customers in , sales of tea trebled to over 150 lb in one week . is n&apos;t that an incentive to try nearly all the promotions that are offered - whether they be soup , canned fruit , Christmas , or tea promotions ? we retailers must team with our wholesaler or the manufacturer to grab the trade that is there . the tragic part is that so many do n&apos;t bother to consider promotions and sometimes even regard special offers as a waste of time . a negligible expense . often group window signs are not lit at night even though all-night illumination costs only pennies . a large number of shops are still ugly , cluttered and dirty . little wonder so many housewives will gladly pay bus fares of as much as 3 s to save only 3 s on their order and still not worry because they are dealing with clean , bright shops . ( the Beddis &apos; store is pictured right . ) perhaps I have been fortunate in having a father who was a wholesale confectioner , Mrs Beddis continued , and having been in the grocery business since I left school . but experience is not enough these days , and many successful retailers with no grocery experience are prospering for the simple reason they have grasped every opportunity to draw customers into their shops and once those customers have come , then they have been sold goods at attractive prices from a clean , bright shop and by enterprising grocers who are good salesmen . the total market for baby foods can look forward to an expansion of some 10 per cent in the next 15 years from the expected increases in the number of babies alone . baby foods : thriving market . the market and prospects for baby foods have again come under the scrutiny of the economist intelligence unit , which is responsible for so much contemporary research in many fields , not least those associated with the grocery trade . in December , 1959 , EIU in no 22 of their publication retail business examined the market , and in the latest issue - no 44 , October - the research is brought up to date . the extracts which we are privileged to give below are but a small part of the whole , which should be examined closely by all who are concerned in the vital and growing market for baby foods . retail business may be had only from the economist intelligence unit , 5 Bury-street , London , SW1 . size of the market . milk products . the major trend in this market says retail business , is the swing away from national dried milk towards proprietary products and there is clearly scope for considerable further expansion in the sales of branded dried milk . this trend was accelerated by an increase in price of the national product in April , 1957 . it is apparent from the substantial sales of proprietary dried milk and the fact that uptake of welfare milk ( liquid and dried ) is very close to 100 per cent that many mothers are taking welfare liquid milk and using it for the rest of the family while they feed their babies on proprietary dried milk . Glaxo laboratories &apos; Ostermilk and Cow and Gate infant milk food have been the main beneficiaries of the swing to branded products . these two brands dominate the market for proprietary dried milk of which they probably have some 45 per cent each . the most important remaining brands are Trufood ( made , like Cow and Gate , by a member of the Unigate group ) and Sma . the latter is a filled milk product , formulated to resemble human milk . the formula is owned by the Wyeth research laboratories , Philadelphia , and the product , which has been on the UK market since 1956 , is marketed here by John Wyeth and Brothers . the remaining 25 per cent or so of bottle-fed babies are given either evaporated milk or boiled fresh milk &amp;hellip; . the total market for evaporated milk is worth some &amp;pound;13 million a year and possibly only one per cent of this is used for infant feeding . however , sales of evaporated milk for infant feeding are rising , and it is impossible to ignore the fact that in north America this is the accepted food for bottle-fed babies &amp;hellip; . a major marketing problem confronting the processors of evaporated milk is that , as the market for their product as a general purpose food is so much more important at present than sales for infant feeding , they are wary of damaging the family image of their product by promoting it too heavily as an infant food . as a result , sales of evaporated milk as an infant food are likely to expand only very gradually . the largest brands of evaporated milk are Carnation ( general milk products ) , Libby , Ideal ( Nestl&amp;eacute; ) and Regal ( Unigate ) . general milk products have pioneered the use of evaporated milk for infant feeding in this country and they claim that Carnation milk accounts for virtually all the sales in this market . Carnation has been available in the UK since 1946 , but the main marketing effort dates only from 1954 with the removal of restrictions on sales . weaning cereals . it is estimated that some 9.6 thousand tons of infant cereals are consumed a year and the retail value of the market is &amp;pound;2.8 million &amp;hellip; . the scope for expansion in the future seems more limited : it will come mainly from the continuing rise in the birth rate and possibly also from persuading mothers to keep babies on these specially fortified cereals longer in life . the leading brands in this market are Farley &apos;s rusks ( made by Farley &apos;s infant food ) , with possibly one-third of the total turnover , and Farex ( made by Glaxo laboratories ) with between one-third and one-quarter of the total sales . the next most important brands , in order , are the range of cereals produced by Robinsons ( a member of the Colman group ) , including mixed cereal , rice , a triple pack , groats and barley , and those produced by Scott &apos;s ( a member of the Cerebos group ) . other brands include Cow and Gate , Trufood and Ovaltine Chuckles . the products above represent three different approaches to the infant cereal market , and in each sector of this market one brand is dominant . Farley &apos;s have a very strong hold on the market for a weaning cereal in rusk form , quick and convenient to use . Glaxo &apos;s Farex dominates the market for a blended and fortified cereal , designed primarily to provide a sound nutritional basis for the baby &apos;s diet . Robinson &apos;s products , of which Baby Rise is one of the most successful , provide variety in flavour and texture for the child . 