If war is hell, then price wars must be somewhere on the far side of purgatory. In any case, a hush-hush record sale has touched off a stampede at the Harvard Coop this week.

It all began when Ann and Hope, a department store in a Danvers, Mass. shopping center, slashed its record prices. Lechmere Sales, which has a branch store in Danvers, followed suit. Then, in this week's Boston Sunday papers, Lechmere splashed public announcement of its unprecedentedly low record prices.

Jesus Christ

But " Coop policy, " according to Sanford Litwin, General Merchandise Manager, " is very simple. We refuse to be undersold. " As a result, the Coop this week has cut its retail prices on all records, with the exceptions of George Harrison's " All Things Mast Pass, " " Jesus Christ Superstar, " and import albums.

Records which list for $4.98, and for which the Coop normally charges anywhere from $2.99 to $3.49, are selling for $2.33. A list price of $5.98 has been cut to $2.96, for $3.58, you can pick up an album listing for $6.98 and regularly selling at the Coop for $5.20.

Getting it Wholesale

Janis Joplin's " Pearl, " for example, a $5.98 list is going for $2.96. The wholesale cost of " Pearl " is $3.35; a lightning mental calculation reveals that the sale price represents a 49.5 per cent markdown off list. The Coop loses 39 cents on each copy it sells.

A spot check in Harvard Square showed the Pearl was going for $3.99 at both Discount Records and Minute Man. "I hope this all stops soon," said Jeep Holland of Discout Records. "It's bad for the record business and it's bad for the customers. At this rate, people are going to stop trusting record prices all together."

Sales at the two stores, however, have not fallen below normal levels. "At these prices, I guess I should be over at the Coop buying records myself," Holland said laconically. "But if this kind of thing were advertised, and if a price war spread, we just wouldn't be able to compete."

The Coop is advertising the sale on its regular WBCN spots, but it has not matched Lechmere's newspaper ads. Nevertheless, the sale-which has been running since Monday and will continue until 5:30 p.m. tonight-has been attracting record crowds.

Every Day a Saturday

Three registers have been feeding steadily on queues of 25 patrons each, with easily as many customers milling eagerly around the record bins, since the start of the sale. "It's been like Saturday every day," commented one sales assistant. "We've had people in from Wellesley and Newton all week."

One patron purchased 119 records for cold cash on Thursday night. The current music section attracted the most attention, but catalogue items, which are rarely placed on sale, were also crowd-pleasers.

"It has always been Coop policy to give its members the finest possible merchandise for the lowest possible price," Litwin said yesterday. "That applies to any item. We will always match competitor's verifiably lower prices for any Coop member."

It was reported that Coop personnel were asked to tone down their normal style of aggressively affable sales assistance, so that the Coop would not incur an excessive loss. A spot check revealed this to be the case.