GROCERS RESTIVE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 245, 16 October 1944, Page 6

GROCERS RESTIVE

CONTROL OF PRICES

"HARSH, UNFAIR TREATMENT"

Retailers in Auckland have not yet received requests similar to those distributed by the Price Tribunal on the East Coast and in the Taranaki and Nelson districts,. in which confidential information is sought to provide a foundation for a survey of various types of businesses, but it was stated to-day that probably similar requests would be sent to retailers throughout the Dominion.

Since 1941 the Price Tribunal has not asked Auckland retailers for such information, it was learned, but in the early years of the war a considerable amount of information was obtained by the tribunal from some members of the grocery trade.

Price control has been exercising the minds of grocers for some time past, said the president of the New Zealand Grocers' Federation, Mr. A. R. Masters, at a recent meeting of the executive of the federation in Wellington, when he gave a survey of the position. "Discontent Growing" "Discontent "is growing among members of our federation, owing to the harsh and unfair treatment that has been meted out to the trade over the last couple of years," said Mr. Masters. "The members, and more particularly those in a smaller way of business, are strongly of the opinion that the Price Tribunal is unsympathetic and entirely lacking in practical knowledge of the grocery trade."

During the early months of the war, he stated, it was predicted by the more experienced that, failing the early introduction of a. stabilised system, with moderate compensation to retailers to meet at least a portion of their increased overhead and to allow for a reduced turnover of goods, the unit profit principle .rigidly enforced by the tribunal would result in hardship to many traders. It was now generally considered in Hhe trade that the unit margin applied to every grocery line had run its course, as numerous traders were to-day receiving lower incomes than the men they employed, and this without return "for capital outlay.

While the grocery trade was restricted to pre-war profit margins, the best profit selling goods had disappeared from the shelves, said Mr. Masters. Also rationing tof sugar, tea and butter had substantially reduced sales, coupled with added expense and anxiety to retailers in the keeping of rationing records.

Referring to stabilisation, he said this was introduced two years too late. Had it been brought in late in 1939 or early in 1940, the position of the grocery trade , would have been very different to-day. "If we are forced to make a survey of our trade associates and businesses and an analysis of balances it should be in support of a petition for relief to Parliament," declared Mr. Masters.