The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-01-19

it is here the 100000 retail mer-
chants of the country have been
handed one of the toughest assign
ments of the war.
Attached to the civilian supply
section of the Office of Price Ad-
ministration is what's known as the
Industry Council, committee made
up of some of the leading merchan-
disers of the country who act as
consultants on some of these supply
problems.
This Industry Council has given
to the retailers of the country the
job of selling their patrons on the
idea of accepting these shortages as
a wartime necessity. Advertising
stats are importuned to hammer
away on the reasons why goods are
scarce and to do an educational
and morale building job on the gen.
eral public.
FIGHT PRICE
HIKES
On top of this comes the problem
of price control. With scarcities in
many lines of merchandising, the
temptation is to kite prices as the
| demand rises. Here the trade asso-
Citations Of the retail merchants, re-
membering the tough times they
had with inflationary prices rises
during the last war, have counseled
their members against boosting
prices or substituting inferior mer-
chandise at the prices formerly pre-
vailing Oh better qualities.
AS Edgar j. Kaufman, president
of a Pittsburgh chain of stores and
a member of the OPA industry
council point out only two of the
price ceilings which OPA has Or
dered thus far have been imposed at
the retail level. These were on flash
lights and tires. All the other price
maximums decreed on cigarets,
sugar, cotton and rayon goods and
ten like have been at wholesale or
higher levels. The retailer and his
customers get the benefits of these
latter ceilings, but the flashlight and
tire schedules directly affect the re-
tail trade. The flashlight ceiling was
imposed to stop run which would
develop shortage and the tire
ceiling was imposed because there
was a genuine shortage.
BIG BOYS
HURT
Freezing the prices on tire re-
treading and rationing the sale of
tires revealed many surprising facts
which are interesting because they
she light on what may happen as
other items of common trade are
rationed-as they certainly will be.
Most significant was the fact the
little man was not hurt as much as
the big dealer. The explanation, as
OPA interprets it, was simple. The
small business man had diversified.
Knowing that he couldn't make his
living on tires and nothing but tires,
he had taken on other lines-a fill
ing station soft drinks, hot dog
stand, fresh country vegetables, a
restaurant OF dance hall.
1t was the one-commodity mer-
chant who was hit the hardest
the fellow who did nothing but sci!
tireS-the fellow who had built up
big business selling tires-the fell
low with from 100000 to half
million invested in a one-purpose
establishment. He Is taking an awful
beating.
Applying this moral to the $4,000
retail automobile dealers, the OPA
consultants foresee, as nearly as
anyone can prophesy, some drastic
changes ON the business horizon.
If, in given area, there are 10
dealers in any one rationed Or re-
stricted commodity, they may have
TO face these choices:
l. The 10 can form co-opera-
tive or corporation, closing up six
Or eight or nine of their establish
ments that cannot be operated pro-
fitably 2. One or two dealers can
buy out the others, who can then
look for defense jobs. g. Some of
the dealers can lease or Sub-let their
territories and franchises to other
dealers, agreeing to split up as they
were after the wars over. 4. If
they all try to stay in business,
some or all may fall. S. Summar-
iZing, the merchant who has di-
versified line of goods to sell stands
a better chance of survival than the
specially shoppe.