GROCERS' PRICE WAR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 212, 23 September 1937, Page 4

GROCERS' PRICE WAR

Our Own . Correspondent.)

Butter SoM at a Lott NEW PLYMOUTH ACTION

(From

NEW PLYMOUTH, Last Night. Following the deerease in the re-teale price of butter to 1/4 on Wednesday New Plymouth grocers have begun a price-cutting war, and most shops are selling at well below the 1/2$ a pound they have to pay the factory for their supplies. At least one store is selling butter at 1/1 a pound. The price vfiried in different shops, and it is believed that the price-cuttlng is either an attempt at foreing the attentioh of the authorities to the position or possibly to force the original cutters to desist and return to a more economical level. It was stated this morning that Government action is likely to flx the retail price of butter throughout the Dominion and prevent such "^vars," which are nneeonomic. , A well-informed business nian said that Taranaki was to be one of the last parts of the country to be brought under direet Governmental control, and he understood that the reason for this was that Taranaki was oue of the few provinces where there was some form of stability both in wholesaie and retail prices. He said it wa,s not the policy of the Government to interfere unnicessarily with trade, but the position in New Plymouth had now reached such a ridiculous stage that the matter could i not be overlooked by the authorities. It was apparent that the ultimate policy was to be that of one national retail price for butter in New Zealand, and it was assumed that the priee would be fixed at 1/4, a level that givcs the groccr a gross profit of l$d per pound. No formal announcement to this effect had yet been made, though one was expected in the near futurs.