PUBLIC, PENALISED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 40, 17 February 1939, Page 10

PUBLIC, PENALISED

RETAILER'S OPINION

"Taking all in all," said a prominent Lower Hutt bread retailer to "The Post" today, "I do not think the new regulation is a good one. It is very one-sided, and I doubt very much whether economic waste will be avoided."

Of the large number of loaves of bread he stocked each week, he said, usually one-third was not sold. This was largely due to the fact that the consumption of bread by the public varied a very great deal from week to week. There were a number of reasons for this, the main one being that visitors frequently arrived at homes unexpectedly, but in the future when these visitors arrived, and people sent out to get extra bread, the bread would not be forthcoming.

"Retail shops," he said, "will not be able to keep bread other than orders. It is the public that is going to be severely penalised. Retailers make a profit of only a halfpenny on each loaf and for that reason alone we cannot afford to keep bread other than is ordered.

"We have our bad debts, as do other industries. People may ask how we can have any bad debts from the bread-selling point of view, but we do have them. My experience is that a great many people leading a hand-to-mouth existence send their children without any money to buy bread from shops as it is cheaper than bread delivered. Sometimes we have to wait weeks before we are paid. Sometimes we are not paid at all.

WANT OF ORGANISATION,

"One of the greatest difficulties we have to contend with is the fact the small retailers have no organisation, an organisation which might have offered some,sort of fight against the new regulation. The majority of retailers have to serve in their own shops and have not the time to attend meetings, with a result that no organisation exists.

"There is nothing to be said for the regulation. I think the demand will be less from the public point of view, and consumption will automatically be less also."