SOFT GOODS TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1934, Page 14

SOFT GOODS TRADE

"DEPLORABLE PRACTICES"

"Throughout the year the company has set its. face against such methods of trading as resorting to the giving of 'free gifts' or other similar devices as inducement!? to people to purchase goods," said Mr. Parker Pope, chairman of Farmers, Ltd., Sydney. "These practices are basically .unsound, and, at the best, simply mislead the public. The directors believe,' Mr. Pope went on, "that it is not possible to give with merchandise a 'free gift' said to be worth anything up to 20 per cent, of the value of the merchandise purchased, unless, in the first instance, the quality of the merchandise has been so lowered as to permit o£ the cost of the so-called 'free gift' to be wrapped up in the price of it; or, secondly, that a greater price is being charged for the merchandise than it is worth, in order to cover the cost of the extra article ostensibly given away in the guise of a 'free gift.' "These are deplorable practices which, unfortunately, creep into merchandising and tend to destroy public confidence, but the directors feel that there is some responsibility on big businesses to be open and frank with the public in their trading methods. So basically unsound are these practices that in the public interest at least two States of the Commonwealth have found it necessary to prohibit them by statutory provisions. Fortunately, some steps are also being taken in New South Wales to urge the prohibition of such practices in trade."

A net profit of £17,001 for the year ended August 31 was revealed in the accounts of Usher's Metropolitan Hotel, Ltd., Sydney. Last year it was £15,043, and in the previous year the profit was £12,010. In the year prior to that it was £8502. Interim dividends for the year as recommended were 8 per cent, per annum on preference and 10 per cent, per annum on ordinary shares.