Show PROFIT IS NECESSARY A survey has been made of the financial experience of a large number of df retail stores during 1951 for th the year sales were slightly up but profit was down to the lowest point since 1939 this was largely the result of higher operating expenses and higher taxes it was h a rare store indeed that had more profit in 1951 than in 1950 some consumers may think this is all to the good we naturally want to buy commodities for as little as possible and in the free enterprise system competition always holds prices down and keeps profits to moderate levels natural economic law takes care of that however we have been living in an abnormal period in which stores like other businesses have often found it difficult or impossible to keep up with i rising costs on top of that some of the Z government control policies have been flagrantly unfair to retailing and have represented an obvious effort to force the retailer to absorb costs over which he has no control in the long run this cannot help but hurt the consumer and the worker no less than the owners and managers of enterprise dangerously low profits force retrenchment they are destructive to initiative they produce economic lethargy retailers faced with the existing cost and profit trends are going the limit in cutting costs and squeezing out all uneconomic expenditures but this can only produce limited results retailing has long been an extremely efficient industry and there much icom room for shaving expenses unavoidable costs must be reflected in the prices we pay theres no other solution fair profits help keep america strong and vigorous |