PRODUCE AND MARKET REPORTS FROM DAY TO DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 124, 30 May 1927, Page 11

PRODUCE AND MARKET REPORTS FROM DAY TO DAY

THE BIG STORE

COMPETITION'S NEW

PHASE

CHANCING RETAIL CONDITIONS

"Evening Post," 30th May. New Zealand at present has not embarked upon the Big Store in the "universal provider sense." True, some of the important drapery houses, \ as side lines, have boot, scent, and soaps departments; some may carry a little ironmongery or books and pictures in .addition to drapery, costumes, furs, and millinery and women's requirements of'these kinds; some have important men', departments and to almost all the large establishments restaurants are attached, for convenience or, but not exclusively for, shoppers. But no effort is at present made to emulate the great department stores of London and the big cities 7 of America where anything from a pound of butter to seats tor the theatre, from A sable coat to a awn mower can be obtained. Intrusion into other retailers' territory is net a strong point in the policy of the larger draDet y.'nouses in New Zealand. It is quite different in London, quite different in America. Attention to the competition of ereat department stores in the United States with specialised retailers is increasing In a recent review by a New York bank of this growing element in retailing, it was remarked that department stores sell druas and groceries, and drug stores (or chemut shops as they are called in British countries) have found a lucrative field in the lunch-counter business. Producers, wholesalers, and jobbers compete with each other m various ways, dairymen and raisin growers enter the distributive field, and mailorder house, and chain .tores compete with everybody. It is doubtful whether this situation has ever before been paralleled in economic history. .Direct appeal to consumers is made by the greatest stores of the United Kingdom who , bur straight from manufactoer.. Wonderful growth is ...made in these * store businesses, and- absorptions ot^smaller, nrms are fairly general. Selfridge's, for instance, have taken over WhUley's, arid Harrods bought out Swan and Edgar's. Kelerence hag already been made in this column_to the great retaU drapery mergers hi England arid Scotland, running into millions of pounds. Some of their dividends are sufficiently attractive to hold the interest of investors. "Barker's with 20 percent Bradley's with 25 per cent. Harrods with 18% per cent., Selfridge's with 10 per cent, preference, Peter Robinson with 12 per cent. .: In many cases" customer* of the above firms are shareholders as well; but an important factor in the expansion of these great businesses is psychologic: in charac-' ter. Women are.thrilled by the infinite variety of goods displayed and the facililes for inspecting them; they seem to find in the spacious and crowded aisles of the, great store something for which they seek in vain in the simple shop with it. counters and often dim lighting. Again, modern travelling facilities are so speejy aid cheap that women can go quite long distances from their own suburbs or even country towns into the city for their shop-ping,-especially if they have motor-cars. yuick turnover; generous advertising, mass buying, and highly efficient manage^ ment account for most of the success of the great department stores, and this success indicates the great changes coming over retail trade the world over, and which in time may be seen active in New Zealand. . v »'■