The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-08
THE RETAIL DEALERS SIDE.

THE RETAIL DEALERS SIDE.
Mr.. j. s. Carver, president of the
Utah Retail Merchants Association, is
much discontented with the newspapers.
He intimates that they do not print
things as the retailers give them, which
saying is a gratuitous piece of folly.
The great difficulty the newspapers
have to contend with in getting news
from the retail merchants is to get the
facts as they are. The newspapers
print as fully as they can the prices
as given by the retail merchants of this
city, but no matter how much pains
they take to get those prices, they find
In many things a wide divergence
between the fact and the prices as CIV
on for publication by the retail mer~
chants. The consumer naturally wishes
to buy at the prices given out by the
retail men. Very often he is not able
to do 1T, and that is one great cause
of complaint, The retail merchants
seem to take pleasure in misleading tho
public in their quotations-fo publica.
ton.
Mr.. Carver says that the newspapers
print statements regarding the prices of
high living (Which are totally un.
true" Well, if so, which is to blame,
the newspapers which print the prices
or the retail dealers who quote those
prices to the newspaper reporters7
Mr, Carver intimates that the news
papers do not print the facts as the re-
tail dealers give them 1t is quite pos
sible that they do not always print
facts' given by retail dealers, when
they know those "factsp to be untrue.
For instance, if the retail dealer says
that the price of a certain article is
20 cents a bunch, a pound or a box,
and the reporter knows By diligent in.
duiry as a customer, that, as a matter
of fact, the price is soc to 35c, and
nobody can buy it from the retailers
for 25c, Of course he does not quote
the false price, but the true one.
There is not the least doubt in the
world but that the prices in this city,
and presumably in Ogden also, are gov
erned by combines, and those combines
put the prices up to the highest figure
which they think the trade will bear
or the consumer will or can pay. 1t not
infrequentlY happens that farmers COM
ing to this city with their loads, ask
extortionate prices before the departure
of the morning trains. After the de-
parture of these trains, after the com
{ho
ket for shipments, then the prices fall
as much as so, 60 or even rs per cent
Then the retail merchants come in and
buy. But do they give their custom
ers the benefit of the drop7 BY no
means. They claim they have paid the
highest price asked in the early morn
ing. when in fact they have done moth
ing of the kind, but they charge hero
ically, the combine among them holding
all to the agreed-on price.
All these things are perfectly well
known to the trade here, ana they are
known to the general public and to the
buyer. But the general public and the
buyer cannot help themselves; they cam
not as rule, go to the farmers wag
ons and get the benefit of the "after-
train' reduction, but have 10 pay the
extortionate prices demanded by the re-
tail dealers.
Mr.. Carver claims that the retail
dealers are entitled TO living, and he
asks that they should be allowed to
make upwards Of go per cent On their
investment IF this means that they
should make 90 per cent per day on
their purchases, that would surely be
a pretty stiff premium for their serv-
ice in handling the goods, But they
make more than that as rule, They
double their money almost daily on the
goods that they sell; but it is true that
they often buy more than they can sell
at the exorbitant prices they demand,
and so their greed is responsible for the
losses they sustain on that account; if
they were at liberty to sell at fair
profit, which their monopolistic combi-
nation forbids them TO do. they could
sell much more, and would have less
ctpF 20 .poI nv fJ,oir baudc