RUBBER BANDS, PAPER AND BAGS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 87, 6 January 1940, Page 7

RUBBER BANDS, PAPER AND BAGS

Shortages In Hastings

Dominion Special Service. HASTINGS, June 5. [Hastings retailers are concerned at the increasing difficulty they are experiencing in securing adequate supplies of wrapping paper, paper bags and rubber bands. Already several firms are advertising their willingness to purchase old paper in clean condition, and some of them predict that it will soon be necessary to request customers to take their purchases unwrapped. The last stocks were secured about a month ago, but these have been practically exhausted by the extra business done during the Christmas period, and with' [New Zealand manufacturers apparently unable to cope with the consequent demand, there seems little hope, that the position will improve unless the import control regulations are relaxed. Rubber bands are on the prohibited list, and the shortage of supplies has resulted in a rise in .price of as much as 100 per cent, in some instances. Retail firms handling large numbers of small articles will be seriously inconvenienced by this particular shortage, as the bands, though a comparatively recent introduction to business, have already _ proved their worth for the saving of time and labour.

From inquiries made it appears that staffs of IVI large firms at least have been instructed to -avoid waste of any kind in an effort to conserve what supplies