Leverett House Platform Proposes 'Confi-Guide' to Local Businesses

A sophomore is agitating for Harvard students to publish a consumer's guide to the Square.

Jonathan M. Hoffman '69, a Leverett House resident, said yesterday that a consumer guide would be a first step toward correcting the low quality and high prices of many goods and services in the Square.

His idea has been adopted by Edward M. Kovachi Jr. '68, as a plank in his campaign for Leverett House Committee chairman. Kovachi said last night, and Hoffman agreed, that it would be quite feasible for the House Committee to direct the guide's compilation with help from other House members. "I know many people in the House who are really gung-ho for this idea," Kovachi added.

It's not just the price of milk that bothers Hoffman. He believes that in general, groceries run about 25 per cent too high.

Hoffman thinks many services are also substandard. He mentioned laundries that mangle shirts, and newspaper delivery that seems to operate only three times a week.

Spirit of Capitalism

Hoffman emphasized that he did not blame merchants for maximizing their profits and was not suggesting any crusade or boycott.

"But there's another side to free enterprise," he continued. "Consumers are also supposed to try to maximize their benefits." The reason prices are high and quality low, Hoffman believes, is that Harvard consumers, like any student population, are uninformed on how to maximize their benefits. They don't know what a good buy is, or when they are being taken advantage of. The guide would correct this, Hoffman said.

The consumer guide would follow the format of the Confi-Guide, Hoffman said. It would have evaluations of merchants on the basis of questionnaires filled out by Harvard and Radcliffe students. It would also include price lists of as many basic goods and services as possible.

Thus, the guide would serve as a basis for discriminating among different competing merchants and also as a forum for complaints. Hoffman thinks merchants would respond to the guide with better prices and service, because a good evaluation would be excellent advertising.