REAL PRICES
The retiring President of the Wellington Master Grocers' Association touched a sensitive- spot when he referred to the discreet (or indiscreet) distribution of Christmas boxes, presents, discounts, etc., also bonuses and coupons, as "bad habits of the trade." This is a very old issue, but Mr. Bennett points out that it ha,s a new bearing, insofar as the gross price—including the present, or rebate, or whatever it may be called—is reflected in the Government Statistician's cost of living figures. That phase of the subject has, so far as we know, received very little , public consideration, but it seemsj to be worth re-discus-sing, especially from the new angle of statistical truth. Net cash prices,, of . course, are different from credit prices, and credit prices that do not include what Mr. Bennett calls "parasitical overheads" must be quite different from prices that do. Possibly the Government Statistician has his checks and safeguards.. Whether he has or not, it is clear that prices would be more real, and also lower, "if traders sold for net cash and added nothing to cover the cost of bad habits of the trade." Is this advice practicable, or is it a counsel of perfection?
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19220325.2.14
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 71, 25 March 1922, Page 4
Word Count
199REAL PRICES Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 71, 25 March 1922, Page 4
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Evening Post. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in