REFUSE TO PAY HIGH PRICES

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5303, 16 January 1947, Page 5

REFUSE TO PAY HIGH PRICES

(Press Ass»t.-

buyers discriminate amer1can retailers are worried

—Rcc. 9.80 p.m.)

NEW YORK, Jan. 15. Thousands of retailers from ill sections of the Unitecl States are attenclmg- a convention of • he National Retail Dry Goods' Association, whose main prob''em in 1947 is customer resistisce to the high prices and how c overeome it.

"Not only are merchandise and operating costs high, but further in"reases are in prospect," says the Xew York Sun. "Some merchants •rre reconciled to the probabilivy that there will be a lull during 1947 while the necessavy price adjustments are being made, but fevv are quite sure how the revisions will he accomplished and who will make them. "It has been suggested that retail gross profit margins can be mainlained, thus cushioning some of the higher Avholesale costs of merchandise l)u. store payrolls are the highest in retailing history and other expendi.ure is proportionately high. "It seems safe on the whole to surmise that the ultimate solution will be ro coneentrate on lines of goods that move easily, eliminating as far as nossible those to which strong cusiomer resistance is expeeted." The financial editor of the New York Times says: "Alanufacturers, despite cries of anguish abont costs and profit margins, will have to lower .'I'iees to meet the customers' ability to consume, or close up s'hop. "Assuming a free, compe'.itive economy includes some freedom of choice for the eonsumers too, prices need not follow costs up the ladder — not if we decide we will not Iet them. We show signs of so deciding." Meanwhile, househoidcrs in the eastern States welcome a further relucfion of six to eight cents a pound in butter prices following aro her vvbolesale pi'ice drop .vhich is attributed to a glutted market. To-day's retail price of 70 to 72 cents a pound for choicest butter is only a few cents ubove the June price eon rol ceiling.