MORNINGTON GROCERY SHOPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26543, 19 August 1947, Page 9

MORNINGTON GROCERY SHOPS

Sir,- Your readers can imagine what a surprise the residents of Elgin road, Mornington, received this morning when they found that goods such as pineapple (cubes and sliced), tinned herrings, sardines. salmon, condensed milk, etc., could be Jiad for the asking but Sir, when a company like Self Help can open a branch as it did this morning and offer goods to the public which other storekeepers cannot even purchase, it makes one wonder how it is done. Elgin road has at present, and has had for a long time, no fewer than four grocery shops, and practically every one of these is owned by a discharged serviceman, eager to become a self-support-ing member of the community by his own efforts. It seems to me to be hardly fair for a firm to come along and offer to the public catch lines that the ordinary grocer cannot supply. To the residents of the district I would suggest that as these returned soldier-grocers supported the residents on the battlefront, it behoves each of us to support them in their desire to rehabilitate themselves. I am in no way. directly or indirectly, connected with the grocery business but I remember what men who wore the uniform gave that we might live. " Lest we forget ” should be practised.—l am, etc., A. S. C. August 18.

Sir,—l see a certain chain store organisation has blossomed out with another branch, this time in the Mornington area.’ Well, Sir, I am sure that none of the established traders are greatly concerned about this new store that has come against them, notwithstanding that the particular area chosen is already well serviced, there being four grocery stores within easy distance thereto. But. what does concern them—and rightly so—is 'the menace of unfair competition. In the first place, the organisation referred to is enabled to boost its establishment with unrestricted sales of tinned fruits, honey, sardines, sultanas, raisins, biscuits, and eggs, etc., lines which in the ordinary way are rationed to the retail trade Secondly, service to the public does not begin end end with cash sales over the counter. The retailer who extends to his customers a credit service—and very many of the public are very grateful at certain times to avail 'themselves of this service—deserves some slight consideration, for it means that the cash-over-the-counter organisation has no book-keep-ing. no receipt stamps, and no bad debts to contend with. Just another feature of unfair competition. Thirdly, many of the residents of the Mornington area are of the opinion that if-the powers-that-be had interested themselves in the establishment of an up-to-date fish shop ,in the recently-opened premises l that would Ha'Ye been a' “ consummation devoutly to be wished.”—l am, etc., Fair Play for All. August 18 [These letters were referred to the local manager of the Self Help organisation, who stated that all grocers had been receiving'regular allocations of sardines, herrings, condensed milk, and canned fruit. He added that the correspondents’ grocers apparently kept their goods out of sight, and did not give them the consideration to which they were entitled He said that the war record of the shop manager concerned was a creditable one, as were the service records of all the shop managers of Self Help.—Ed. O.D.T-I