Milk Bars Urge More Goods On Exempted List

Press, Volume C, Issue 29684, 30 November 1961, Page 9

Milk Bars Urge More Goods On Exempted List

(New Zealand Preu Association) WELLINGTON, November 29. Submissions presented today by the Auckland Dairy, Milk Bar and Confectioners’ Association and the New Zealand Federation of Restaurants, Milk Bars and Mixed Business Association, asked for a considerable list of goods to be added to the exempted goods list. The submissions were heard by the committee set-up under the Shops and Offices Act to review the list.

The chairman of the committee is Mr G. A. Nicholls, SM The list of proposed additions included toilet requisites, cleaning requirements (detergents, etc.), food (including frozen meats), emergency medical requirements, stationery (including confetti), and sundry items such as candles, electric light bulbs, torch batteries and bulbs, shoe laces, lighter fluids and flints, pet foods, fish bait, babies' feeding bottles, room fresheners, rat poisons and glue. “Our type of business is the only shop that is open seven days a week and in the evenings during the week, and for this reason the milk bar-dairy or mixed business

is the only one to which the housewife can go when emergency suplies are required after the normal shopping hours,” said the submissions. Free Traders The Southland Free Traders’ Association submitted that as it was unique in New Zealand in that it operated with no restriction on trading hours, it was in a position to give a true picture as to public demand for goods over the week-end. The association advocated the addition of all groceries to the exempted goods list as they were in demand throughout the weekend. The Auckland Butchers' Union opposed the adding of any prepacked frozen meats to the list, and the New Zealand Meat Retailers’ Federation asked that the committee exercise extreme caution before making any alteration to the existing list insofar as meat items were concerned. Deletions Wanted The New Zealand Master Grocers' Federation wanted goods which cannot reasonably be regarded as being of an emergency nature deleted from the list, the federation secretary (Mr R. M. Barker) told the committee. “We have two objections to the present list,” he said. “First, the goods contained in it go far beyond emergency and week-end requirements, and second, those shops which trade in these exempted goods have ceased to act in a manner suggesting that they are anxious to meet a need, and have now, through aggressive and intensive merchandising sought to create a demand for the exempted goods.” He said the federation was concerned with those food items which went far beyond meeting the emergency needs of either a housewife who might have unexpected visitors or a flat dweller who may have limited storage space. Items asked for deletion were: luncheon sausage and cooked ham, pre-cooked and deep frozen foods, baked beans and spaghetti, mustard, salt, pepper, and vinegar, honey, meat or vegetable extracts, pastes and spreads. Vegetables Addition Submissions made on behalf of the Vegetables and Produce Growers’ Federation by its secretary (Mr D. W. Goble) favoured adding all fresh fruit and vegetables to the list. The federation submitted that, to the face of public demand/ fruit and vegetable retailers could not reasonably expect to deny shops trading at week-ends the

right to provide fresh fruit and vegetables from noon on Saturday until Sunday evening. The public outcry which followed the deletion of fresh vegetables from the exempted goods list in 1958 had continued at intervals, said the submissions. The increasing week-end trade by roadside vegetable stalls indicated a strong public demand at week-ends. "Many people prefer fresh vegetables rather than processed foods. They demand vegetables that are fresh, not those which have been purchased wholesale on Thursday and held over until Monday in unventilated shops.” To be supplied fresh, vegetables must be cut immediately they reached maturity, and the channel of distribution must not be interrupted by week-end and holiday breaks. When held for any length of time after harvesting, the palatability and vitamin content of the vegetables was progressively and irretrievably lost, said Mr Goble. Submissions were also heard from the Retail Shop Assistants’ Union (Mr W. L. Ellingham) directed not so much at individual items i comprising the exempted goods list, but at what the union considered should be the basic principles governing the issuing of such a list

The union supported the Federation of Retail Fruiterers and Greengrocers in opposing additions, said Mr Ellingham.