CHAIN STORE INQUIRY

Grey River Argus, 23 October 1936, Page 7

CHAIN STORE INQUIRY

GROCERY FIRMS A Special Plea (Per Press Association;. WELLINGTON, October 22. Mr 11. F. O’Leary, representing the Wellington Chain Grocery Stores Association spoke before, the Committee of Inquiry to-day. While adopting the submissions' of Mr Watson in regard to Woolworth’s, MeDuff’s and McKenzie’s, ho pointed out certain differences. The stores he represented, he said, were New Zealand stores, established by New Zealanders with New Zealand capital, and controlled and operated by New Zealanders. They were not departmental stores. They dealt in foodstuffs and in lines ordinarily stocked by grocers. They catered fully for the grocery requirements of the community. They worked on a much smaller margin of profit than did the departmental stores, but at a higher expense. They operated a type of business that was governed by one award, under which the rates of pay were higher, and it was necessary to employ a larger percentage of seniors to juniors. He also claimed that they had performed a public service by reducing the cost of living, and submitted that they had so 'favourably established themselves that their continuance unhampered was demanded by the people of New Zealand.