PRICES IN BRITAIN FALL.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 July 1920, Page 11

PRICES IN BRITAIN FALL.

SUBSTANTIAL REDUCTIONS. The Board of Trade has not yet collated the latest prices in the various trades, but states that undoubtedly substantial reductions Are visible in a number of directions. The Secretary of the London Chamber of Commerce agrees that prices tend to diminish, though the effect is not fully visible in the wholesale trado except in some lines; for example, cocoa has fallen from 10s to 15s n- hundredweight in three weeks; the better kinds of bacon AOs; good quality lard, 255; and sago, from Is to 3s in the same period., Selfridge and Co., Ltd., though able through flriancial strength and popularity to yield slowest to the downward pressure of pricos, threw a bombshell into the drapery and grocery trades with their 10 and 5 per oent reductions respectively, except in the case of a few articles. • The manager, when interviewed, declared emphatically that this was an unsafe means, but it wan a genuine attempt to bring down nrices. which were dangerously near the breaking strain. and retailers had had a five years' innings, and must recognise that the end must come some time. The smaller firms were already following the lead of Selfridge and Co., but some of the larger firms were lidding out. Concerted action was impracticable in these trades. "We are attempting to convince the manufacturers that their interests coincide with ours in gradually reducing prices in order to avoid a crash later," added the manager. R. and J. Dick,, Ltd., boot sellers, have also reduced prices 10 per cent all round. They state that they are not philanthropists, but merely intelligent anticipators of ft permanent reduction throughout the trade.