OCR Text |
Show Retailers Stand To Lose The retailers of the nation stand the chance of taking a considerable con-siderable licking if there is a precipitate decline in prices. There are some facts which every retailer should bear in mind. The first is that retail inventories, in-ventories, throughout the nation . in February, showed a considerable consider-able increase over inventories a year earlier, and, after allowing for increased prices, the Alexander Alexan-der Hamilton Institute says that the quantity nf stock in the possession pos-session of retailers was 22.3 per cent higher 'than in February, 1946. Against this background of increased in-creased inventories, one must set the second fact, that an apparent increase in retail sales, as measured meas-ured by dollar volume, was more than offset by the increase in prices and that, in reality, there was a 3.8 per cent reduction in the quantity of goods sold dur ing the first two months of this year as compared with the first two months of 1946. There is significance in the fact that while the value of sales was 16.2 per cent higher for the two months' period in 1947, as compared with the same two months a year ago, there was a 3.8 per cent decrease in the quantity quan-tity of goods passing over the counters. Inasmuch as there is a general belief that the consuming consum-ing public needs more of the goods usually sold by retailers, this indicates that present prices are definitely retarding sales. It is a difficult position in which the retail merchant finds himself. To keep up his stock of goods, he must buy at prevailing pre-vailing prices but it is important for his own welfare, that he appreciate ap-preciate the danger of becoming overstocked in a period of declining de-clining prices. |