RETAIL PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 175, 26 July 1930, Page 8

RETAIL PRICES.

Mr. M. J. Scott offers a very feeble av«u ment in reply to Mr. Shearer on 'the allow subject. Mr. Scott states that if price cuttiiia among the retail grocers should continue the trade will get into the hands of a monopolists combine and then the prices will soar higher than ever. Some twenty-five years ago fe cutting took place in a very drastic manner among the grocers of the. Homeland. Chain stoi'es were established in practically every town in Britain, and < groceries could be pa/.. chased from ten to forty per cent 'cheaper than ever before. I refer to the big combines such as The Home and Coloniarstore< The Maplo Stores and Liptons', Ltd.f' To 'a great extent these stores secured a monopoly of the trade and after a quarter of a century of trading no one could ever suggest that tliev took any undue advantage of their monopoly. As a layman, I would venture a suggestion to Mr. M. J. Scott whereby lie and others in like predicament could compete most successfully with the price cutters. In the street in which I live there_ are eighty-four dwelling On Thursday of last week no less than eighteen grocery delivery vans fall motor vehicles) called on the residents, booking their .weekly order, and on the following days Friday and Saturday, they returned again-with the groceries. Doubtless many residents run' up weekly or monthly accounts, and some of. these accounts might prove to.be bad or doubt* ful. All this needless work must incu/a bi« overhead expense which, in the' long consumer has to,pay. Cut all that.out'and worry will be at an end. AUNTY. BUNK.