26 APRIL 1957, Page 4

Shop Talk

ONSERVATIVE MPs ought to have been duly embarrassed when they read a speech by Mr. Walter Padley, MP, in favour of the Government's Shops Bill; for Mr. Padley defended the Bill on what basically were Socialist arguments. Apart from its political content, the speech was so singu- larly silly that it would hardly be worth answering, were it not for one point he made which might deceive some consumers into thinking they will get some benefit out of the Bill.

Longer shopping hours, Mr. Padley asserted, mean higher prices. But this is precisely what they do not mean. The great advantage of allowing shops to remain open late is that it keeps prices down; this, plus the convenience of late opening to shoppers, is one of the chief reasons why the Bill should be fought.

Two types of shop stand to benefit from re- maining open late : the small family concern (which does not have assistants, so costs do not rise) and the self-service shop or `supermarket,! whose labour costs are so small compared to the ordinary shop's that it can afford to work a shift system, and keep open longer—as long, in fact, as will suit its customers' convenience : which is as it should be.

Self-service shops rely on large sales and rapid turnover to keep down prices. But they are up against not merely the retailers' ring (which does not care for price competition) but also the folly of some firms who insist on resale price maintenance—that is, they try to prevent their goods from being sold cheaper than the price named on the tin or bottle.

A firm may well put a fixed maximum price on its product, to prevent customers from being overcharged by unscrupulous retailers; but there is no reason at all why a shopkeeper should not charge less than that price, if he thinks he can still make a profit. The stock argument against his doing so is that cut-throat 'competition pulls down shop stan- dards. But it does not. On the contrary, it helps to drive out the inefficient. It encourages shops to go for a large turnover with a small profit margin; and to get the large turnover, they have to attract custom by giving good value. That the Government should fail to see this is astonishing— in fact, by what means a Conservative Govern- ment has been mesmerised into producing this Bill, and retaining it (admittedly with some modi- fications) in the face of its own supporters' hos- tility, remains an unfathomable mystery.