CHAIN GROCERY STORES.

Evening Star, Issue 19894, 16 June 1928, Page 12

CHAIN GROCERY STORES.

„ TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Your issue of last evening containing an interesting letter signed by “Liberty,” headed ‘C.O.D.,’ made the rather startling statement that a very large shipping and wholesale firm proposes opening a chain of stores throughout the dominion and spending close on a million pounds in the process. This is unquestionably a sign of tbo times, and if I have been informed aright chain stores in New Zealand would simply bo moulded on the same lines a.s in Canada, tbo United States, ami Great Britain. There is ’’no doubt that tho chain stores system tends toward cheapening groceries for tho housewife. Jt does appear Jo me that our retail grocery friends in Dunedin and throughout Otago will need at vine to put their houses in order, and this can only bo done by making (heir juices cheaper, warranting tho continued support of housewives throughout this province. If grocers do not put their houses in Order it will mean, when tho chain store shops do open, housewives will give them great patronage. This will mean putting other grocery businesses in jeopardy, ami will have a far-reach-ing effect. All the grocers in Otago employ a considerable number of hands. Most of those hands have a family to support. If chain stores come hero on the same basis as in Canada end England, it will moan there will only bo two or three of them, and il they capture most of tho trade they could rot find employment for many hands, and the hands they did employ would havo to be really, wideawake, attentive, and smart salesmen.

Do some of our grocer.',' simps cneeurage smart and altoi.itivo .salesman? T think not. There arc grocery shop'.' it) Dunedin where salesmanship is unknown, where the methods employed are most obsolete, and it behoves those particular shops to put their houses in order without any delay. [ am sure that the majority of the people in Otago are anxious to continue supporting those _grocery businesses which have been in Dunedin so long, and which are endeavouring to give service, but which are undoubtedly getting too much profit on the lines they sell If grocers in Dunedin will make their prices more within keeping; if grocers will assist the housewives to make the pound go further, then I am satisfied housewives in tn© main will when the chain store shops open, be favourably disposed toward the older-established groceries hm.

After all saidancl done, movements inch as the chain store movement are jwt • sign of tlio times. Trading, conditions _aro changing ns the result of •mioinic upheavals. The old methods •mployed by shopkeepers, it appears to DM, will have to go by tbo board. It is pot an long azo since I took a trip

to some of the North Island towns, and, being a keen*housewife, compared grocery values in Dunedin with grocery values in tho north, and there is no doubt on quite a number of lines grocers here are getting far higher prices than in tho north. There must bo some reason for this. Either the grocer hero is not buying his goods in the best market, or ho is getting far too much profit, and as wages are not increasing very much, and as the pound to-day buys less than it purchased a few years ago, it seems to mo that it is only a fair thing for grocers to do their ‘little hit to help us by making prices as reasonable as they can. The grocers and bakers in Dunedin could help by making their prices more reasonable, and if they do not do this Ihcy aro leaving a great opening for chain store shops to commence operations here.

a Liberty ”, says that lecturers on economics tell us that if an article costs £0 to make it takes another £6 to sell it. If this is so, no wonder groceries aro so dear in Dunedin; but what I would 'ike to get at is why are groceries so much dearer hero than in the North Island? If, as “Liberty” says, there is so much to be secured under the, C.O.D. system, it would assist housewives here, perhaps, if they could evolve some method whereby they .could purchase grocery lines from abroad on tho cash on delivery basis. What I havo often been in doubt about is why is it the Labour Party has not, in its platform, given some lead showing definitely a way to cheapen the cost of nil commodities sold over a grocer’s counter. ft would bo interesting to know tho Labour Party’s views on the chain store system l ‘suppose all the chain stores will have to pa.v their staffs union rates of wages, or will they employ a lot of boys? Is the grocer in Dunedin at present giving ■me full value?—-I am, etc., Believer in Home Science. June 11.

When shown a copy of this letter the president of the Master Grocers’ Association said that these stores would work largely on the lines, of the “cash and carry” establishments, and some expense would be saved in wrapping, etc. In Dunedin the public desired more attention than this. They wanted their groceries wrapped up and tied neatly, and also to be served courte nisly, so that they had to., pay a little more than in stores where they had to seek goods for themselves and take them away in a bag. The Dunedin people, too, demanded the best class of article, and would not be satisfied with the inferior grades that were handled by some firms in the north. Even with the prices that were ruling at the present time many grocers were having a struggle. Then, again, a large number of grocers in the north cub in price certain lines of goods, mid there were some people who bought one cut line in one shop and went to the next man to obtain another cut line. Customers-of this

sort were of no use to any grocer, and their patronage was not sought. Several city grocery shops were visited by a ‘Star’ reporter this morning with a list of average prices ruling' this week 'in Wellington. A comparison with Dunedin prices shows that housewives hero are not so badly off as our correspondent would lead us to believe In the following quotations the prices in brackets are those ruling in Wellington, and the others are those ruling in Dunedin to-day:— Good table butter Is 7d (Is 7d), prunes 4d (6d), mild cheese Is (Is), matured checSo Is 3d (Is 4d), dates 6d and 7d packet, 31b for lid (8d packet, lb), bulk honey Sd (9d), rice, sago* barley. and tapioca all 3d (3d), shelled walnuts Is lid (IV; 6cl), Californian prunes, 30’s and 40’s 7d (Sd), eggs 2s 6a (2s 8d). Tho only dearer article is sugar, which is quoted at los Del per 701 b bag in Wellington and 17s 6d in Dunedin, hut this is partly accounted for by additional freight.—Ed. E.S.