SLUMP IN PRICES

Waikato Times, Volume 93, Issue 14538, 9 December 1920, Page 3

SLUMP IN PRICES

RETAIL EFFECT. WILL THE PUBLIC GET GOODS , CHEAPER? t Recent fall in prices—the drop in ; wool, the fall in skins, and so on ; ' have given rise to questions us to what f | bearing they will have on retail prices. 1 From what can be gathered there is i no general desire to hazard an opinion, ■ j and while a falling tendency is expected in sonic lines prices are expected • to remain stationary in others. i I There was an impression that recent i prices in the hides market might icsult • in a reduction in the price of bools, i but a leading bool manufacturing exf pressed the opinion to a New Zealand Times reporter that this would not be the case. One had to bear in mind, i he said, that on the first of the month ’ the prices of leather were equalised >. Then Hie hides sold recently did not i' represent a very big quantity. Hides ■! were actually hardening in price, and ■ I the price of bools could not go down, i S In Hie soft goods trade articles are • being offered at reduced prices, and i 1 the public is hoping that a change for I the belter has set in. In some busi- . nesses there are accumulations of , goods and these are being worked off, ■) in some instances at lower rales than they were offered at in the immediate • past. Meat is an expensive commodity at ! present, and in this line, too, a reduction in price in the near future is confidently looked for.

A southern expert in the textile trade, interviewed, gave substantial reasons for the opinion that any reduction in prices to the public will come about, not in a natural way by a lessened cost of production, but simply owing to merchants and manufacturers competing against each oilier in an endeavour to lessen their heavy stocks, a stale of affairs which cannot last if business is to be at all remunerative. He points out that in America it is declared that 75 per cent, of the cost is in the manufacturing, and that the English makers estimate the expense of manufacturing as 70 per cent. Accepting that position, the decrease in the price of wool by no means ensures cheaper goods. As to wool, if (lie raw material could lie got for nothing, the difference in the cost of making ladies' costume (weeds in the Old Country would ge no more than 2s per yard, say, from 20s to J Bs. As to cotton goods, taking a standard line of longcloths, Hie Home manufacturers now announce a reduction amounting to about 15 per cent,, but from October of last year to February of Ibis year, the same makers increased Hie prices by 50 per rent., and to-day the prices are as nearly as possible live limes as much as the pre-war prices.