7 MARCH 1931, Page 56

SELFRIDGES.

Not unnaturally the heads of some of our big Stores have felt it incumbent upon them to take up the point which has been raised in many quarters with regard to the lag in retail prices as compared with the heavy fall in wholesale. At the recent meeting of Selfridge and Company, for example, Mr. Gordon Selfridge contended that one of the-causes of the lag in retail prices was the very high intermediate costs of manu- facture and distribution. In other words, of course, it is the high price of labour plus restrictions, &c., which largely accounts for conditions which, despite the fall in wholesale prices, leave the general cost of living very high. A. W. K.