TRADING WITH EACH OTHER

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 8

TRADING WITH EACH OTHER

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Your correspondent "One of the Public," as his norn de plume leads one to believe, has had little or no experience in business, evidently. .He complains of having to pay 150 per cent, more for a bottle of medicine here than he paid in England. Why single out medicine? Are not most other articles from 100 per cent, to 150 per cent, dearer, here than in England or the country of origin? For his information, I would like to point out that the average cost of landing goods in almost any "line of business is 90 per cent, of their cost in England and any business man knows he must get his profit on this 90 per cent, as well as on the English cost price. Assuming the profit to be 50 per cent, on the total outlay, the usual figure, the profit on the' 90 per .cent. i 5.45 per cent., bringing the cost to consumer to 135 per- cent, above that in England, practically, speaking to the figure complained .of by "One of the Public." Although I know it is not fair to make comparisons on only one -transaction, as your correspondent has done so I feel I must give him my experience, of having a prescription made up at one of Boots' shops in London. My! mixture to the public cost 3s here and 2s in England, so taking trie above facts into consideration it was not very cheap. t However "One 'of the Public" evidently regards himself as one of a section of our community, "the public," a section apart from the rest and which gets its money from nowhere' and is the means of a living for the shopkeeper.. This is a fallacy, which many people have been holding to; losing sight of the fact that we are all dependent on each other and must trade with each other if we are all to get ■a living. By trading mainly with the' big chain stores, the general standard of living is lowered by the lowering of wages, property values, and values of businesses. While this is going on tho manufacturers, property owners, wage earners, and small business men are left lamenting. If the big chains are so good for the country, why is it that laws have had to be enacted to limit fheir activities in other countries such as U.S.A. and South Africa? —I am, etc., '

NEW ZEALAND CHEMIST.