TOBACCO SHORTAGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20526, 9 April 1941, Page 11

TOBACCO SHORTAGE

POSITION IN SYDNEY RETAILERS SEVERELY HIT SYDNEY. April 2. Stocks of tobacco in many city shops ran out on Saturday. The secretary of the Retail Tobacconists’ Association, Mr. T. V. Dobney, said the position would be worse, and would not improve until later in the week, when shops would receive their April quotas. “We regard the prospect very seriously,” he said. “It seems inevitable that, with the restrictions becoming heavier each month, many small retailers will be forced out of business.

“With the co-operation of the Federal Government, we intend to approach the State Government to see if anything can be done to improve our position. At present private clubs, such as sporting and bridge clubs, receive tobacco rations to which the general public has no access. That is one thing we want stopped.

“We are feeling the position more acutely because the rise in prices this year cut down our profit margin by 2 to 3 per cent.

“When rationing was first introduced most retailers had reserve stocks they could draw on. Ninety per cent of these have been absorbed. In addition, imported lines are now prohibited. Four million American cigarettes were consumed annually, ifiis loss has to be met out of the rationed Australian stocks.”