SALE BY HAWKERS OF CHEAP WATCHES CAUSING CONCERN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 34, 5 September 1949, Page 3

SALE BY HAWKERS OF CHEAP WATCHES CAUSING CONCERN

If a hawker comes to the door offering a watch at an alluringly low price—be careful. The watch may be one of the hundreds which each year disappear from cargoes entering the country or, more probably, it is worth a great deal less than the small price asked for it. From a number of centres throughout New Zealand at present are coming reports of hawkers who have beguiled housewives with stories of watches that have been sneaked ashore off ships and ended by selling them wristlet watches at from £3 to £7. Subsequent inquiries at jewellers have shown C at . the real value of the back-door snip has been nearer 30/A 1 though there have been no reports that the hawkers have been active in the Bay of Plenty yet there is a possibility that they may soon arrive. The . technique is usually the same. After retailing a slightly shady past far his wares, the hawker produces the watch and starts at £5 or more. If that does not work, rapid reductions follow and even if the sale is eventually lade at £3 the profit is still good. Puzzling jewellers is where the watches come from. The source is as great an enigma as where pillaged watches go to.. The sales have already become serious enough to warrant investigation by the Jewellers’ Association and inquiries are being made into the source of the watches. An official of the association told of a case in one suburb where a .man called at a second-hand shop and offered a watch at £5. The proprietor indicated that he was not to be caught that way and pointed to a nearby jeweller from whom he could get a watch if he wanted one. The salesman was good, hcwever, and successfully pawned two watches to the second-hand ? Jer before departing. He received £8 10s each for them—a profit of £1 15s at least.

Hotel bars are a happv hunting ground for the hawkers, a.’hough house-to-house sales are made. A recent case was where a man had exhibited a watch to a hotel customer and said it had cost £ls in Australia. Desperately short of cash after the races, he offered it for £5 and readily found a “mug.”