REORGANIZATION OF DISTRIBUTION UNDER WAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320548-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2011
• Sequence Number: 548
• Publication Date: June 29, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/10 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320548-8
------- acv+rra~t~ t IF~~ I
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD t:0.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT 50X1-HUM
COUNTRY Poland
SUBJECT Economic -Consumers' goods
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily newspapers
WHERE
PUBLISHED Warsaw; Krakow
DATE
PUBLISHED 15 Feb - 15 Mar 1950
LANGUAGE Polish
O/I17N~0 YM`TtD fTAi[t/ Y1ITNDIN ATMYN YlAI1 M0 OIIlIlf10MA0{D~QNio
Y. D. 0.. !1 AND ii. A! ANl VOID. In THAN/Y11310N ON TNt N[YlLA710N
O/ 111 CORTlNi1 IN AN7 YANNYN TO AN YNAUTNONIIYD Il!!ON I! INO?
NIDITlD YT LAV. N1IN000OTION OF TNIf t0lY 13 -NOMIYIi1D.
REORGANIZATION OF DISTRIBUTION TJPIDER WAY
ORGANIZE CENTRAL MILITARY TRADE OFFICE -- Polska Zbro~na, No 66, 7 Mar 50
The Minister of National Defense, in cooperation with the State Economic
planning Commission and the Ministers of the Treasury and Interior Trade, has
ordered the creation of the WCH Central Military Trade Office).
The new office is to set up a >ietwork of retail stores and canteens for
servicemen, officers, noncommissioned officers, and employees of military poste
and their families and to provide them with necessary consumers' goods. Crea-
tion of model shops for consumer services is planned in the near future. The
stores and canteens will be of particular benefit for army men and their families
stationed at small garrisons.
Regional departments of the WCH will be in charge of supply and will co-
ordinate the functions of single stores and canteens. The general headquarters
will be in Warsaw.
The necessary personnel will be trained by the WCH during the first 3
months of 1950. The personnel will be selected from the families of servicemen
and disabled war veterans. The army chapters of the Women's League will take
charge of training the female personnel, to be employed mainly at stores and
canteens.
Locations of the stores and canteens will be selected by arrangement with
the commanders of military units.
The WCH will take over all stores of the former tFnioa of Military Coopera-
tives, lately controlled by the State Central Trade Office. The transfer is set
for the second half of March 1950. Normal sales still begin on 1 Elpr11.
The stores will be open 7 hours a day, and their schedules will vary accord-
ing to local conditions. For instance, hours may be from 0700 to 1000 and from
1600 to 2000, with one hour set aside for administration and accoanting operations.
Canteens will be open 6 hours; the remaining 2 hours will be taken up with ad-
ministrative functions, deliveries, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~A~.
STATE
ARMY
NAW
AIR
FBI
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
DATE DIST. ~ 9 Jun 1950
N0. OF PAGES 3
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT N0.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/10 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320548-8 ~
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/10: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320548-8
COflF{DEN"'
The military stores will serve only members of the armed forces and their
families, upon. presentation oP a special consumer's card.
The choice of store will be left to the individual serviceman.
The Central Military Trade Office will maintain close and constant contact
with the commanders of military units, with politica]L and Party authorities,
socialized institutions, and the Women's League.
~7HOIWS.4LE FOOD M~uxFTTtuG REORGANIZID -- Dziennik Polski, No 73, 15 Mar 50
The reorganization of wholesale food marketing has been completed. The
former PCH (State Central Marketing Office) and the CSS "Spolem" (Central Office
of Consumers' Cooperatives) have been merged to form the new CS (Centrals
Spozywcza, Central Food Marketing Office). The CS, at present, has wholesale out-
lets and branches throughout the country. During the change-over period, CS will
in addition to food, handle clothing destined for local cooperative stores.
As a result of the centralization of supply sources, specialization is now
possible in marketing, which means more efficient operation. This has helped to
reduce the number of personnel who can be transferred to other branches of
socialized trade. Economies in transportation are possible through car-lot ship-
ments.
Former PCH retail stores in larger centers will be taken over by the MHD
(Municipal Retail Trade), and stores located in smaller towns will be transferred
to cooperatives.
TO CONTROL PRIVATE CLO'i7iffiG INDUSTRY -- Zycie Warszawy, ::0 68, 9 Mar 50
The private clothing market has not yet been regulated. This market is
serviced mostly by illegal manufacture from materials purchased in socialized
stores and made up in private homes. The articles are taken to market, sold
wholesale to peddlers, or sold in clothing stores.
The Textile Trade Center allocates materials only to state enterprises and
socialized stores. Tt is apparent that private merchants buy materials intended
for private consumption or from illegal peddlers, disorganizing the market and
creating still another form of illegal peddling.
Various methods are used by these operators. For instance, ready-made
clothing such as fall coats axe bought up from the socialized stores, they are
interlined, the pockets and buttons are changed, rind then they are sold as winter
coats at a 100-percent increase in price.
Such operations create a scarcity of such articles in the socialized stores.
Although nany of these articles are very poorly made, they are all very expensive.
So far peddling has eluded control, but it is imperative that it be ~?ncluded
in the intensive program against speculators.
12 NEW GEI+tERAL MERCHAI~IDISE STORES Irr'195o -- Trybuna Robotnicza, Au ~6, 15 Feb 50
At present, there are 86 pDT~(General Merchandise Stores) in Poland. The
1950 plan provides for 12 more to be opened in Cho nice, Luban, Dzierzoniow,
Klodzko, Kalisz, Bialystok, Piotrkow, and Gdansk-Wrzeszcz, and the expansion of
the store in Bydgoszcz. The market hall in Bytom, remodeled for PDT use, was
opened for business in January.
~a~f~~~~~~A~.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/10: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320548-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/10 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320548-8
CoflFIDEflTIAL~ ~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~
Although the assortment of domestic goods will not be greatly changed, high-
grade imported articles will constitute about 25 percent of the total turnover.
Besides imports from Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic, tan~hree
bottles, various aluminum articles, sports equipment, etc: from Hungary,
kinds of excellent FID cameras Prom the USSR will soon be imported.
~~~~~~~~~~~r,~
-3-
CONFIDENPIAL
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/10 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320548-8