BETTER BUSINESS
DEFINITE IMPROVEMENT SHOWN,
CONDITIONS IN CHRISTCHURCH
CHRISTCHURCH, August 24
Blindness men. to-day are distinctly happier than they were three months igo. There has been a small but. perveptibfe improvement. The indications are that the months ahead are going to be decidedly better than were the corresponding months of last year. There is a feeling .that there is nothing of the flash in the pan the improvement, but that it is based on a solicfi •foundation. The source of the present optimism has nothing po : do with cheer germs. It is founded on figures—those cold, unemotional!-sym-bols that know nothing of dieer-up campaigns and care nothing for psychology. It is the figures that , have spoken this time, and when figures speak the business avoir Id takes off its hat and listens respectfully. , , . “If things keep on going like this,” said Mr H..F. Herbert, head of a large retail hoot business, “we will not complain. People. are starting to ask for smart shoes already, and we have not had any fine weather yet.”
better tone.
The tone generally, he said, was better, than it had. been. People were definitely brightening up. -“Business will be better from' now. op,” lie,.said, and added that the outlook now was much better than a year ago. People were not talking now in .the. doleful way that they were a year ago—there was an altogether different N expression. He attached importance to the* fact that people were buying.good stuff, seeking the quality article again instead of insisting on poorer. quality at a low, price. ... .
A reason for the improvement—and he agreed that there was' an .improvement—was suggested by. Mr Y., E., Hamilton, manager of Messrs: Mason, Strothers and Co., who.sa-id-that'people had probably caught up to. a large extent on their liabilities. When the slump came, said 1 Mr Hamilton,, many people were caught with commitments which t-hev were obliged to meet out of restricted incomes. The effect had been, of, course, rigidly to restrict theirpurchasing power. But now:'it appeared as though large numbers of people, had now' managed to clear these liabilities off. “A lot of our fnrmi”c friends,” he said, “appear to be ’ in that position, and they are now able to buy a little more.’’
ENCOURAGING SIGNS. • Mr Hamilton said that figures showed that there was an improvement. “Today,”; he said, “we ai*e holding up to the-same--figures as-sr'yeuT-agofwheTef as, three or four months ago, we .were not in that position.” The costs of business,: lip said, had come down and were comin.g down. It was a slow process for the reduced costs to make their effects felt, but the effects were starting to- be felt. A great alleviating factor, he said, would be a reduction in rates. ' If the rates on business promises could be reduced l the way would be opened for much more employment.
“FIGURES SHOW IT.”
“It can he said without hestntior that there is a definite improvement---the figures show it,” said Mr D. 0 Bell, manager of the Star Stores. .“Our lowest figures to-day,” he added, “are better than our test figures six montle ago.”.
“My opinion is,” lie “that things are very much on ,the .mend. There is a- definite increase in ;.husi ness, and there is a fine tone, both from the merchants point of view and from the retailers.’ •It appears to be a general improvement.” , .
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19320824.2.63
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Hokitika Guardian, 24 August 1932, Page 6
Word count
Tapeke kupu
559BETTER BUSINESS Hokitika Guardian, 24 August 1932, Page 6
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Hokitika Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.