TOWN v. COUNTRY TRADING.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XXIV, Issue 427, 19 March 1921, Page 3

TOWN v. COUNTRY TRADING.

(To the Editor)

Sir, — There are some points which seem to have escaped . attention in this controversy. The buyer who lives for '.the moment will ho doubt make a few shillings by the transaction. He may or may not get the same quality of goods. Personally, I have had dealings with mail order firms as far aprart as Auckland and Dunedin on the "satisfaction or money back" basis, and I have found the firms excellent to deal with.- But I have only done it because I could not get the articles I wanted locally. The process involved me in any amount of bother—getting money orders, writing letters, waiting days "and weeks for the answers, returning unsuitable goods and so on. Postage alone cut out a good part of the discount. But I got what I wanted in most cases.

One point is that the local storekeeper lias himself largely to blame for lack of enterprise in catering for such trade. He can not be expected to stock up as a. needle to an anchor" universal provider. But he should make it clear that he is not only willing but able to get anything available at shortest notice, and also be able to show the thing and its price in a catalogue. The trouble I find locally is that." I have to oi-f jr blindly/ that the storekeeper seemingly doesn't know as much about the prices and sources of supplyas I do and that he is so very slow in giving delivery. He may explain the fact, but he can't explain it away. „ • v :

But the main fact is the logical consequences of mail-order trading. One is the decay of the. local store, following the increase of the city merchants' hold on bijtf business. With the decay of local conveniences for wage-earning people who must purchase hand-to-mouth, tradesmen will cease to settle in the country centres. Their firms will be concentrated in the city, and when, you want a plumb er, a painter or a carpenter, you will have to get one on "mail order." The more you make country life difficult for the towndwell ing man, the more he willhang to the city.

Then when the mail-order firms' have collared the big business, what then .; They will have it their own way. ' Prices will not always be '' cut The natural drift is for mail-order firms to coalesce. Then they make their prices what -they will. Even co-operative concerns soon cease to be competitiy,e_. and when they have got their business well established on conventional lines, become just as dear for shareholders to buy from as any other.

But the big company is not the friend .of the small farmer either. It is hardly playing the game to send cash to the mail order concerns and run a long-winded ac count with the local storekeeper when yon are hard up. Because that is what it comes to.

The present competition will do good even to those not taking part in it. - The lpcal firms will still live, because they deliver over the counter and at the door and give accommodation when needed. But both farmrs and residents ■must wake up to the danger of sending business away from their town.— I am, etc. _ AMUSED.