Dairies ‘helped by new act’

Press, 31 October 1977, Page 18

Dairies ‘helped by new act’

PA Dunedin Restrictions on weekend trading would benefit small corner dairies and groceries, the member of Parliament for Mount Eden (Mr A. G. Malcolm) told the annual conference of the Dairy, Confectionery, and Mixed Business Association in Dunedin. Mr Malcolm was a member of the select committee studying the Shop Hours Trading Act which became law this year. He said smaller businesses were under pressure from larger discount concerns, but they would be helped by the new act, which was not as prohibitive on smaller businesses as on large shopping enterprises.

Mr Malcolm said he saw the act as providing protection for dairies and mixed businesses because they could “easily slip through the net and meet any criteria.”

“Larger shopping centres, malls, and shopping areas acting in union will find it more difficult to open on Saturdays and compete against you,” he told the conference. The criteria laid down in the act included stipulations that week-end trading should not cause any rises in retail prices, disrupt social patterns in the community, or have any adverse effects on transport facilities. More than 50 representatives from throughout New Zealand are attending the conference.