GROCERIES ARE UP!

Ohinemuri Gazette, Issue 3941, 8 July 1918, Page 3

GROCERIES ARE UP!

COMPLAINTS IN CHRISTCHURCH,

Complaint is made by the Sun of the, substantial rises in the retail prices of groceries in Christchurch: "Following a wholesale increase of 2d per 1b the retail price of mustard has advanced 4d, or Id per quarter pound tin. Common soaps are now sold at 2s Id instead of Is per bar, and local candles have increased by Id per Ib, and in some instances 2d. The most unsatisfactory feature is that there is no definite limit to the upward tendency. In some instances the retail advance ismore than the corresponding wholesale one. The retailers' answer to this is that they cannot follow in their price list every whole sale fluctuation. When they do ■increase values, such advances often cover previous wholesale rises which had not been passed on. They also claim that their margin of profit is now smaller than it was before the war commenced, whilst double the outlay on goods is now required of \hem." Soap made a rise in price in Dunedin last week of £4 per ton.