PURCHASE OF FOOD

Grey River Argus, 8 September 1939, Page 10

PURCHASE OF FOOD

Restriction Imposed BY CHRISTCHURCH GROCERS. CHRISTCHURCH. September 7. Food hoarders, who have been buying groceries well in excess of their normal requirements, have led city grocers to adopt protective restrictions. In future, they will sell only 41b of sugar, 11b of tea, and 71b of flour at a time. To avoid multiple purchases, at different shops, manystores will serve only their regular customers. To counter requests for 251 b or 501 b bags of flour, they will, in future, buy in 2001 b sacks and repack in 71b containers. Not only for other customers, but for the grocers themselves is the position made difficult b” excess purchases. Under the Control Regulations, shops are only allowed to purchase wholesale their normal requirements and the rush has seriously' depleted current stocks. One city grocer told a reporter, tinmorning, that his business, this week, had been about double normal. ’ The main requirements by some customers were sugar, tea and flour, and big orders were being put in for tinned fish anp fruits. Shop attendants, who attempted to restrain customers, were bullied into accepting their orders, he declared. He pointed out that hoarding was both unnecessary and unfair tn other customers, who bought noimally, and the trade was forced to make restrictions.