DISTRIBUTION COSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 199, 23 August 1926, Page 4

DISTRIBUTION COSTS.

HOW THEY HAVE GROWN. AND THE REMEDY. The problem of the cost of distribution a= a chief factor in the high cost of living is one which has exercised the minds cf political economists in recent rears in all parts of the world. It will, of course, be recognised that to fill a demand as complex as that imposed under modern condition*, becomes more and more costly as the complexity increases. is to say, if a hundred people in a district all want the same thing at the same time, distribution can be cheap and easy. But a> the complexity of demand increases distributicMi becomes more difficult. A glance at the enormous variety in a well-equipped grocers' shop will illustrate the point; that glance will also revoal the different sizes and shapes in which articles are packed. Every variation is a factor that helps to increase the ultimate cost to the consumer. In an article in "'Commerce and Finance" based upon Borsodi's book on '"The Distribution Age' , there are some astonishing figures. They may by summed up by saying that the cost of distribution has risen from about 10 per cent of the final value of the product to nearly 30 per cent. "Everything we buy." says this writer, '"costs proportionately much mode for distribution and much less for production than it did 50 years ago. Hence many minds are turning to mass distribution." At Washington recently a conference of distributors was held* and although, as was to be expected, no plans for immediate action were devised certain formulas for future investigation were laid down. Amongst these are the standardisation of the machinery of distribution (the trucks, boxes or other containers) the precise timing of distribution and the organisation (even between firms' in apparent rivalry) of common transport methods.