The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1912. RETAILERS AND PROFITS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 308, 25 June 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1912. RETAILERS AND PROFITS.

To buy in the cheapest marKet and .0 sell in the dearest is a recognised principle of successful trading. Big businesses are not built on philanthropic foundations, and a narrow margin of profit on a small turnover does not conduce to a plethoric banking account. Neither does the cold print of written platitude# aid the people in an endeavor to reduce the cost of living. In New Zealand it is common to suppose that heavy Customs charges, imposed as a protection to local industries, rank as the chief reason for the extremely short life of the common or garden pound note. The trader who distributes goods may be generallyregarded as a man who spends his valuable life in self-abnegation for the benefit of his fellow man. It lately transpired in evidence before the Cost of Living Commission that the corpulent wholesale bootman sold a certain brand of footwear to the retailer at 10s. The suffering retailor handed these boots to the public for 22s 6d. Tim manufacturer of this absolutely necessary article make* a handsome profit, and there are several New Zealand manufacturers of boots who are striving hard for the millionaire mark. The retailer who is asked the simple question, "Why do you demand 12s 6d profit on an article that cost® you lOs," exclaims, "But look at the rent I have to pay," and makes some other equally feeble explanation. As the public cannot, or will not, co-operate, the public pays "through the nose" for its footwear, and for many other articles which are specifically protected by the Government in order that local manufacturers may charm the shekels from a confiding and long-suffering public. The other day a man wanted one of those famous New Zealand-made rugs. He priced the rugs in a retail store. They ranged from 50s to 60s. But he did not buy. He later collided with a manufacturer of these rugs. This gentleman sold him a rug of the 60s variety for 27s 6d—wholesale price. He is at pro--1 sent engaged in assigning a cause for the philanthropy of the retailor. It is common in New Zealand for articles that cost 5d each, duty and all other charges included, to be retailed at Is and Is <M. It is still commoner for wholesale dealers to import goods of the poorest possible quality which are sold at low prices to retailers and for retailers to demand and obtain anything from 50 to 100 per cent, profit. The retailer, if he is politely asked to name the reason for the high prices of commodities and articles of

daily use will trot forth the obsolete and doddering rent defence, to which is added the inevitable "cost of labor" wheeze. In reality, the suiferer who pays a 5 per cent, rise in wages makes a 10 per cent, addition to the article he sells, and has, .herefore, been a gainer on every rise of vages that has taken place in New Zealand. In no country on earth is the disproportion between wholesale cost and the retail price so great as it is in New Zealand, and in no country is the general public so willing to be fleeced, In many countries—notably those countries having a large proportion of liand-to- . mouth inhabitants—the boycott is the exceedingly effective method used to control this form of rapacity. There are never any' effective public outcriea in New Zealand, and the public simply complains without acting. Any great business corporation which descended on New Zealand, determined to reduce retailing profits to a fair basis, would capture an enormous business and incidentally become public benefactors. It is almost ■impossible to name any article of daily use in N«w Zealand on which a gross overcharge is not made. Many inferior articles retailed in New Zealand are offered at tremendously enhanced prices, simply because they are made in New Zealand, and for no other reason. We instance the product of a certain New Zealand brush factory which is retailed at 3s 6d. A brush of precisely similar appearance, but of superior quality (English, German or French) is sold at Home for 4d and New Zealand for 6d. And so on all through the chapter. Although the Cost of Living Commission may disclose many similar facts it cannot alter them. It is only the public that is capable of demanding that thi» rapacity shall be diminshed. It is only possible to punish a rapacious trader by not buying from him, and no real effect in mitigation can be gained unless the public as a body agrees to a single course of action. The enormous disparity between wholesale charges and retail prices would drop immediately a slump came, or immediately an organised public effort was made to demand a reduction of profits to .retailers. While many tradesmen find it easy to rake in a 50 per cent, or a 100 per cent, profit they will, of course, persist in a system that is essentially wrong. The whole system of trading in New Zealand needs stern revision, and when it is. considered the ' question of huge profits, the credit system, adulteration, short weights and measures, and the pernicious New Zealand habit of false description should also be considered. The tradesmen have many disabilities to suffer from industrial unrest, bad debts, over-keen competition, selling small lines under cost to sell larger ones over cost, and the whole business has become so intricate and involved that even they would probably welcome a thoroughly sound and revised basis of operations.