FULL IN PRICES

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7439, 28 June 1920, Page 3

FULL IN PRICES

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 Chamb-T of Commerce agrees ' that prices tend to diminish, though tlu effect is not fully visihle in the wholesale trade except in some lines ; for example, cocoa has fallen from 10s to Iss a hundred weight in three weeks ; the better kinds of bacon 50s ; good quality lard, 25s ; and sago, from is to 3s in the same period.

Selfridge and Co., Ltd., though able through financial strength and popularity to yield slowest to the downward pressure of prices, threw a bombshell into the drapery and grocery trades with their 10 and 5 per cent reductions respectively, except in the case of a few articles.

The manager, when interviewed, declared emphatically that this was an unsafe means, but it was a genuine attempt to bring down prices, which were dangerously near the breaking strain , Manu ■facturcrs and retailers had had a five years' innings, and must recognise that the end must come some time. The smaller firms were already fallowing the lead of Selfridgaand Co., but some of i;th.e larger firms were holding out'"Concerted action was impractic able in these trades.

"We are attempting to con- - vince the manufacturers that their ■ interests coincide with ours in gradually reducing prices in order to avoid a crush later,,' added the manager-

R. and J. Dick., Ltd., boot sellers, ha v 7e also reduced prices 10 per cent all round. They state that they are not philanthropists, but merely intelligent anticipators of a permanent reduction throughout the trade.