" OVER-SHOPPED.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20789, 7 August 1929, Page 7

" OVER-SHOPPED.”

VIEWS OF BUSINESS PEOPLE. WIDE SUPPORT GIVEN TO ALLEGATION. The statement made by Mr E. A. Rosevcar, retiring president of the Duncdin Chamber of Commerce on Monday night, that the retail trade in Dunedin is over-shopped, formed the subject of inquiry yesterday by a Daily Times reporter among business people of the city. ' The first gentleman approached was the manager of an important grocery store. “ Quite right,” he remarked, after reading the ~ retiring president’s remarks. “ Everything he says is perfectly correct. There arc too many shops,'and, taking the grocery trade, for instance, the cutting that is being practised is alarming. Of course, we must follow suit, and cut down as far as possible, and the consequence is that, with decreased returns, hands have to be dispensed with. There is —-, in the next block, who is getting rid of a ifiaii next week. Indeed, things have never been as bad as they are now. Yes, it is true that competition is the lifp of trade, but it ought to be fair competition, and much of the competition now going on is not fair.”

The owner of a grocery shop with an extensive, trade said: Too many shops? Yes, undoubtedly. In the • last nine mouths over 100 small shops have bfecu opened in our trade in the city anil suburbs. ‘ In some cases, the wife looks after the shop and the husband is at work. They pay no extra rent, and as a result of their favourable position they cut into the trade in a way that !s nothing short of menacing, and many businesses which have been thriving in the past are thriving no longer. It is a case now of the survival of the fittest. No doubt the public are in many cases reaping the benefit, but it is a serious thing for the retailers and those they employ. I have been told of one case in which a man was put off and a hoy taken on. This gentleman also voiced a complaint against the Labour Department. " The sikk.lL shops,” he said, “ are selling at all hours, with little or no check, and it all tells against the legitimate shopkeeper.” * In a prominent drapery shop the manager was very emphatic about the position;, “I quite agree with all Mr Rosevear says,” he remarked. “There is no doubt we are getting over-shopped, and the competition is becoming so keen it means the whole lot of them are hardly making a living, and that. others, who cannot reduce their overhead expenses, show dwindling profits to a point dangerously near the vanishing line. I like the appearance of the streets now that so much has been done to brighten them ilp, but *he subdividing that is going on and the extra number of. shops coming along are giving us more shops jlhan’ our present population justifies. It means that some of the shopkeepers will 'have to go to the wall. Rents are much higher than they wbre some time ago, .and so many people are competing for business that the effect must be very serious.” Asked for a remedy, this gentleman shook his head and said; “It is a difficult question. We wqnt a revival of business, not so much money lying on deposit, and more population/’

A more hopeful note was struck in the suburbs. 1 Said,/.the' owner of a drapery concern: “ The' extension of shops is very noticeable, but not ao much as in town, because the population here and round about is growing. This suburb was notoriously short of shops,' People are now beginning to shop largely in their own suburbs, so that there has really been a Reid for the extension of shops out this way.” 1 -‘' It. is all right,” said another shopkeeper, "to put up more shops in the suburbs that are extending, but it is absurd to have so .many shops in the town as we find there to-day,” and he pointed to n map of Dunedin, with the remark, “In this block there are seven small shops on the same side of the street—fancy goods, grocery, sweets and others.” ■ Our. representative was assured that Wellington and Christchurch i are experiencing the same- state of things. “ There is not much use having conferences,’’ said a merchant, adding that s one'thing that might have a good effect would be the restriction ol credit to the small people. 1 However, the wholesale houses were/keen for business; and- were 'apparently inclined to take risks. Undoubtedly, a large economic question ; is ■ opened up by'the .facts elicited in the interviews, but it is riot the purpose of this article to touch on that aspect of the matter.