N.Z. PRODUCE SELLS ON THE CLYDE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 26 March 1930, Page 5

N.Z. PRODUCE SELLS ON THE CLYDE

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD'S FIRST SHOP

GLASGOW BELIEVES IN EMPIRE BUYING

f GLASGOW, 12th February. New Zealand has now closed her great "drive" in the Empire MarketingBoard's new shop to spread the sale of her produce in Scotland. This shop is situated at 173, Argyle Street which, as i all .New Zealanders familiar with Glasgow will know, is in the very centre of the city, and on its busiest shopping thoroughfare. The Empire Marketing Board has rented the shop until the end of May, and is handing it over, for periods of a fortnight each, to the Dominions and Colonies to" display their produce and to sell samples. New Zealand's turn came first. ;',;;• CROWDS ROLL IN . Crpwds clustered round the spacious windows while the staff from New Zealand House were still hard at it arranging their goods. As soon as the shop opened it was packed, and from morning until closing time the counters ; were three and four deep with visitors. Butter and cheese, mutton and lamb, honey, dried and condensed milk, to-. heroa soup,' tinned sheep" "torigues and apple display' material were on view. Samples were sold where possible. (■..:..A kitchen, installed upstairs andin charge of expert women demonstrators, gave demonstrations of cookery, with only Empire ingredients used three times daily. The women of Glasgow packed out these demonstrations.

CATERING FOR TRADERS ' Customers were thus catered for thoroughly. But the housewife was not the only customer considered. The importance of the wholesale and retail traders was not forgotten. Every effort v//s made to enlist the interest and active support of the traders of Glasgow. They were offered all facilities for stocking New Zealand produce, so that shoppers who had seen what took their Fancy in -the... Empire Marketing Board shop might buy it—and, it was hoped, give a regular order for it—from their ordinary retailer. Special, accommodation was set apart, above the shop, where traders might sit in comfort and talk business with New Zealand or Empire Marketing Board officials. MESSAGE OF THE SHOP The appeal made to Glasgow through this shop was clearly stated by the Rt. Hon. William. Adamson M.P., Secretary of State for Scotland, and was eloquently reinforced by Mr H. _T. B. Drew, the. New Zealand publicity officer, at the opening ceremony: Ihe Empire Marketing Board asked the people of Glasgow to buy from the farmers' of the old country as a first choice. Empire buying begins at home; that,is a fair, principle, applicable to the Dominion equally with the old country. But England and Scotland do not produce more than a tiny fraction of their own needs. Let them buv the rest from New Zealand and from other parts of the Empire. Always choose the produce grown by your own kinsmen and good friends m New Zealand rather than foreign produce, lhat was the.message brought to Glasgow bv the opening of the Empire Marketing Board shop. It was not, of course, a new message, but it is one that bears repetition and all the signs go to show that in Glasgow it has been received by a willing public.