“COUNTRY RETAILING”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 190, 1 November 1927, Page 2

“COUNTRY RETAILING”

ADDRESS AT TE AWAMUTU An interesting address, entitled “Country Town Retailing,” was delivered to business men at the monthly luncheon of the Te Awamutu Chamber of Commerce on Monday by Mr. A. J. Sinclair, secretary of the Te Awamutu Co-op. Dairy Company. Many country retail firms had been able to show steady progress during the past few years because they had acted on a principle followed by Carnegie, who maintained that his success had been due to the fact that he never lost heart in a slump. A retailer should overhaul his business in slack times. Referring to weaknesses of country retailing, the speaker said that the country retailer was apt to envy the large volume of sales of his city confreres and to get a mistaken impression that the first essential of success was to increase sales at all costs. While every retailer should strive for a larger turnover and should adopt as his business motto, “What we have we hold, and what we don’t have, we go after.’’ the increase must be obtained on safe lines, as it was easy to pay too high a price for a larger volume of sales. Speeding up turnover and reducing overhead expense, the speaker said, were two main objectives of successful retailing. His first recommendation, to cut out “swank” in business, might appear unusual, but it was his opinion that in New Zealand the high cost of “swank” in private and in business life was as great a problem as the high cost of living. The speaker also suggested there was need for some country retailers to talk and advertise less about price and more about quality. The retailer who could not sell at a fair profit and who had to resort to price-cutting, was sliding down a slippery hill, with the official assignee waiting for him at the bottom. In conclusion, lie said a contented and enthusiastic staff was a greater asset in a business than steam or electricity, blit no employer had a right to expect that spirit to prevail unless he made conditions right for his staff. Very little progress could be made in that direction so long as certain employers regardless of the individual merits of 5£ ei + L, employees Persisted in the error that tne award minimum rate of wages was the maximum.