MORE CHAIN STORES.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13087, 22 October 1935, Page 7

MORE CHAIN STORES.

MENACE OF BOOTS LTD. During the past few weeks numerous petitions have been presented to Parliament praying that steps be taken to prevent the establishment of chain stores by Boots Ltd. Last week the other side of the case was brought under the notice of the House of Representatives. A petition was received from Boots Pure Drug Company,. Ltd., signed by its attorney, Mr W. H. Cocker, solicitor, Auckland. The petition stated that the modern system of chain store distribution was fully applicable to pharmaceutical business and was calculated to result in a reduction of prices charged for many medicinal lines by chemists, and further that it was the policy of Boots Ltd. to sell medicinal and allied lines to the public at most reasonable and economic, prices—to eliminate excessive profits on the one hand, but not, on the other, to indulge in “price-cutting” in a sense of selling goods at less than their true values. •‘Boots Ltd. do in England and will in New Zealand,” the petition continues, “employ as large a proportion of qualified chemists in their retail pharmacies as do other pharmarists in the Dominion. Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue." it is asserted in the petition that it would be unjust and contrary to the interests of the purchasing public to prevent the company from opening retail pharmacies. The petition 'asks that the House refrain from passing legislation preventing the company from establishing a chain of pharmacies in the Dominion.