CONSUMER RESISTANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27259, 9 December 1949, Page 8

CONSUMER RESISTANCE

STRONG FORCE IN CANADA PRICES STABILISED BY THE ATTITUDE In the United States and Canada at the present time, said Mr T. J. Taylor, a Canadian woolbroker, m an interview with the Daily rimes last mgnt, retailers were afraid to increase prices, because it might halt the present large sales of department stores, in ms case he could only envy the prices which were being paid for i\ew Zealand wool in the sates at present being held m this country. By the time the wool reached the Canadian consumer its price in the form of clothing or cloth would be too nigh. Canada was yet a buyer of New Zealand wool, Mr Taylor said. Most of its buying was done, however, in the off season. He should not be in New Zealand at the present time as it was now the wool sale season in Canada. But he wished to see the process of marketing and selling by auction in the Dominion, and had already bean to Wanganui, and after the Juneain sales would go to the next. Canada had a very small sheep population. Climatic conditions on tne east coast limited flocks to 30 or 40, as in the wetter months they all had to be housed. He had recently had a letter from his home which told of temperatures 2deg above zero on November 26. Canada’s annual consumption of-wool was about 45,000,0001 b; she produced only between 10,000,000 and 11,000,0001 b. And sne bought her wool mainly from New Zealand and; Australia because sne could get it duty free from Empire countries. The sales of goods in department stores in Canada had been going up since the war years, and were still going up. The textile industry had been expanded, and was continuing to do so. Prices ot well-tailored suits, bought “off the hook,"' were about 45 dollars —approximately £ 15. Tailor-made suits cost from 65 dollars and upwards, but the cheaper tweed garments were only about 25 dollars.