TRADING GIFT COUPONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1930, Page 6

TRADING GIFT COUPONS.

Though legislative control of commercial enterprise ris administration that should be very sparingly applied, there seems to be a general feeling that the Government has acted wisely in prohibiting the issue of trading stamps and trading gift coupons after June next. Whatever the use of ? such coupons for stimulating trade in certain commodities might once have been, the wide extension of their issue in their various forms has made the system topheavy and is defeating the. object in view. The average purchaser for cash likes to feel he is obtaining' some advantage for prompt payment and the form in which the discount is given him is not' considered of so much, importance. But the growth of the coupon system has, in some instances, led to a suggestion that a cash buyer may get “something for nothing” when as a matter of fact the provision of ( discount, direct or indirect, must be allowed, for in costing the goods sold to the public unless the retailer desires to end in the Bankruptcy- Court. Prohibition of the issue of coupons or trading stamps will not in the. least interfere with the granting of discounts for .cash or approved credit. On the contrary it should make it easier, for the trader will be spared the expense that has grown up with the coupon systems and the customer will know the actual cash value of the discount that ready money payment will bring—a value that is exceedingly difficult to assess accurately under the gift coupon system. On the surface th provision of “gifts” as a premium for purchases of certain commodities seems rather attractive, but when it is remembered that in the long run the public must pay . for the goods so provided there, is much to be said for freeing commerce of an entanglment that is growing fairly rapidly. It seems remarkable that the authority of the State has been necessary to deal with a matter that lies entirely within the realm of commerce, but apparently unanimity of action was impossible to obtain otherwise and the evil was growing. At all events the interference of authority is in this instance by invitation, and it is to be hoped will have only the effect that is required and desired.