Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-11-12
H|NDLEY TALKS ON
RETAIL SITUATION
Gives Splendid Treatise on Present
Day Problems Before Big Gather
ing of Business Men and
Their Wives

That another price cut in mer-
chandise by the manufacturers and
wholesalers equal to the reduction
of the past 60 days will send many
retail mercantile establishments to
the rocks unless public prejudice
against the retailers is removed and
the true situation revealed to the
buying public was the contention of
w. j. Hindley, former mayor of Spo-
kane, in an address before the local
retailers and their wives Thursday
evening. The address by ex-Mayor
Hindley, who is now educational di-
rector for the Washington State Re-
tail association, followed a banquet
spread in the chamber of commerce
roms, with covers set for 200.
The speaker covered the present
retail situation from many different
angles and gave an insight into the
conditions which confront the retail
ers under the price deflation move
ment which had not previously been
understood by the general public.
Public opinion, he pointed out, can
accomplish almost any end, and mis-
informed public opinion threatens
disaster to the retailers of the ma
ton today. The retailer who con-
formed to the edicts of Attorney
General Palmer during the war and
sold his goods on hand at a small
margin over cost, now finds himself
stocked with goods that represent a
cost to him of 200 to 300 per cent
what they would have cost five years
ago. The retailer has made money
during the high price period, to be
sure, but almost every cent of that
profit has been put back into the
stock, which invoices, at cost value.
more than double the invoice value
Of the same stock five years ago.
Now misguided public opinion takes
hand in the matter and could force
the retailer to reduce his selling
prices on his goods on hand to a
small margin over the present manu-
facturers' prices, with indication that
still further deflation may be ex-
pected. That would mean selling the
goods on hand at replacement values,
less than their cost to the retailer
and would send those retailers who
obeyed the instructions of the at
torney general to the bankruptcy
scrap heap.
Mr.. Hindley had no fault to find
with the public press for publishing
columns innumerable anent the high
cost of living during the war period,
because the public demanded it, but
he branded as unfair to the retailers
and to the buyers alike their reluc-
lance to tell the reasons for the high
cost of commodities and to prepare
the public for the readjustment per-
iod which has followed it is as it has
followed every other war of conse-
quence.
The enactment of a proposed law
requiring certain margin over cost
on all commodities, he claimed,
would prove a disaster to the poor
man and blessing to the rich man.
He pointed out that 60 per cent of
the purchases are for necessities.
The margin of profit on these is so
slight, he said, that the retailer
could not exist if he did not handle
the Injuries, which constitute 35 per
cent Of the purchases. On these lux
uries the margin of profit is suffi-
the necessities. The profit margin
law would raise the price of necessi-
ties and reduce the price of Injuries
a condition which would not be well
coined by the rank and file of the
public.
Interesting extracts from Mr.
Hindley's talk are given below:
THE past six months have been
the most strenuous and difficult
months that have ever confronted the
retail merchant. Beginning with the
almost impossible securing of ade-
quate stocks, due to world competi-
tion in the American market and at
prices far in excess of those that
were expected by both the merchant
and the public following the world
war, and now confronted with a
breaking market in which the i'm
mediate absorption of the loss caused
by those reduced prices which must
be taken care of by the merchant
himself.
1.-The attitude of the buying public
during the peak load of high prices
was one of disappointment and pro-