European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 29, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday june 29, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 19 Coffee what s brewing c by Susan Stuerke Juergen staff writer Offee drinkers overseas Are Arou j no because of the caffeine in their morning brew but because of the exorbitant prices attached tit. While prices in some supermarkets in the Stales have dipped 30 cents Usa eur commissaries have not seen a corresponding drop. Indeed Price soared to a record High during the past month. And even if prices do eventually recede Don t get your Hopes up. It s doubtful that prices will go Down very far. Coffee traders see no return to the Days of $1.50-a-Poundcoffee in the foreseeable future according to the new hark  Europe Coffee buyers Are just hitting the Crest of , prices went up in the Middle of june and now a three Pound can of folgers is $9.86," Toby Wood complained. Wood resides at Benjamin Franklin Village in Mannheim. I Haven t stopped buying yet but when it reaches the Point where you have to take the food from your family s Mouth to buy Coffee it s reaching  William Gallian. Assigned to the 8th div.  up to the remaining cans of Coffee at the Mann Heim commissary. They re just crazy to keep raising the prices from on Day to the next. About three weeks ago. I bought a can which was about $6. Now a $3  he Shook his head disgustedly and decided that his morning bracer was not Worth it. As Gallian walked away he added. " i really Don t thin there s a shortage it s All a lie. It May be stockpiled in a warehouse in the states. If there was a Boycott organized Here i would sure go along with  it s not the warehouse suppliers in the states who Are hoarding the Coffee but the smart Consumers who stockpile it themselves a checker at the commissary said. I think a few Load up at the beginning of the Mont when the new supplies hit the shelves. The rest Are buying gradually if at All Glenda Terrell said. Responding to the High prices and consumer Boycotts,. Coffee drinkers have Cut their consumption by 17 per cent according to time Magazine. European shoppers appear to be following this trend. I think most people Here have been buying just Small amounts and making them last longer. We modern living the sleeping car Heads for extinction by Michael Goldsmith associated press Ike the Stagecoach and the steam locomotive in their Day most of Europe s luxury sleeping car express trains Are doomed the victims of Prog in Ress and the lust for Speed. The most prestigious International train of All the direct Orient express from Paris to Istanbul made its last run in  the time it died it was no longer an express train. Police and customs formalities at 10 Borde Points and the complexities of International Railroad bureaucracy had slowed it to an average Speed of less than 35 Miles per hour on its 1,900-mile run. In the end most passengers with the Means to Payfor sleeping car accommodations preferred to go by air instead completing what used to be a 2v4-Daytrain trip in As Many hours. Most of the surviving Long distance Sleeper trains now Are beaded for the Fate of be direct Orient they Are no longer economically viable. Paris is still the Hub of Europe s Railroad  International sleeping car trains Start daily out of the City s six main line stations for destinations As far Flung As Madrid and Lisbon Copenhagen Amsterdam Moscow Vienna. Budapest Bucharest Munich. Rome Geneva and by train  Europe s state wed Railroad administrations operate a Pool of about 1.000 sleeping cars irregular service. A third of them Are owned by France. Britain Spain Portugal and the East euro Pean countries do not belong to the Pool but Cooper ate with it in running the surviving luxury trains. The trouble is that Glamour and in Ftp Are not enough to keep a train running said a spokesman of the French Railroad administration. Nearly All these trains Are running at a loss. They belong to a bygone  the Pool was $11 million in the red last year. Including losses of $800,000 reported by France and $12 Nulion by West  losses Are far Iuar to Europe s Railroad administrations. Most of them Are forced for Poilu Cal reasons to continue operating uneconomical coach trains to Small towns and Rural areas Gener ally with the help of government subsidies. But these trains serve All social Levels not Only the Rich. The prestigious Long distance sleeping car trains Are a prerogative of the wealthier travellers. The Standard sleeping car weighs 55 tons and con. Gains 11 Sleeper compartments Complete with sheets blankets and miniature washing  Means that the bed of every Pullman Pas Senger travelling alone weighs five  the spokes Man said. Naturally every ton hauled increases a train s Cost per mile if we based Pullman fares on such a calculation we would Price them completely out of the Market. Therefore the taxpayer has to subsidize the luxury passenger and that is a social inequity which Are governments will not be Able to justify much  in 1976. The european sleeping car Pool carried about one million sleeping car passengers while seven million passengers travelled in simple bunk known As Couch ettes where six persons Are crowded into one compartment. A bunk costs supplement of $16 a night regardless of the Dis Tance compared with an average of $40 for a  the sleeping cars the Couchetta trains have no frills and no conductors. The salaries of the conductors one of them works on each sleeping car make up More than 20 per cent of the Cost of running the luxury trains. The Railroad administrations plan to withdraw the sleepers from service gradually. The Long distance trains will be maintained in most cases the spokes Man said but their most luxurious accommodation will be the  an Early victim of the planned cutbacks will probably be the night train from Paris to London which is carried across the Channel on a ferry Between Dunkirk and Dover. Some sleeping car trains such As the prestigious Blue train Between Paris and the French Riviera May survive because unlike most of the others they Are still making Money. And one Money losing train May go on As Long a there Are trains to anywhere the Green soviet owned luxury train from Paris to Moscow that pullout of the care do Nord at 5 12 every afternoon. Toe russians Are so anxious to keep that train going at their expense that economic considerations simply Don t count the spokesman said. Buy it Tut for breakfast but if it goes of much More Well quit buying it All together said Karen Gilbert wife of a staff sergeant. In addition to Steep prices Many complain that the commissary is usually sparsely locked especially of the Best  commissary personnel Don t want to admit that the warehouses arc stockpiling Toby Wood feels. Thet Nellh  she said. Sgt. Paul Radtke Mannheim commissary Steward said the people Are Bent out of shape because they Don t know the truth and Are too apathetic to find  of the people in the Community Are sitting Back and complaining without knowing the  Radt Esaid. Consumers fail to understand that when the military buys a product they make a commitment to pay a certain Price. By the Lime the goods Are received overseas the prices May have been lowered in the . But the initial prices must still apply Radtke  have to abide by the prices set by the troop sup port Agency Tsa in fort Lee va.," he  doubts if the warehouses anywhere Are stockpiling. We Aren t hiding anything if people think we re holding anything Back Well be glad to give them a tour of our  commissary open houses Are regularly held to give people a Chance to air their opinions but usually no one shows up. Radtke  trends in Coffee sales at the Mannheim commis sary Are comparable to those at other commissaries inthe area he added. Our cheapest brands Are outselling All others and we can t keep them in  Mannheim commissary is also usually Low on the highest priced brands such As folgers and Chase Man Hatter but there is no danger of them running out he  about two years now Coffee drinkers have lamented their plight. For Consumers at the Susareu commissaries it looks As if Coffee pots May remain Idle for a Long time according to col. William Miner suppl management chief european Field office troop support Agency in  demand and prospects of heavy Coffee harvests in Brazil have brought Down the prices some places in the states but it will be about 90 Days before this change will be reflected in wholesale prices Overall. Miner  will be an additional two to three months before the lower priced Coffee will make its Way to commissary shelves because of the time period difference Between the . And the commissary Market he said. This time period difference also works in toe con Sumer s favor. Miner noted. In the past Coffee prices were often lower Here then they were in the ." in the meantime the current prices should not Rise he said. Miner said that there has been a definite change in con Sumer behaviour. At first we saw the panic buyer who bought Large amounts of Coffee now people Are buying sparingly and relying on what they be already