SIR,—Leslie Adrian's concern for me in your number dated June
9 is flattering but any distance I may have to go in understanding resale price maintenance is really nothing compared with hers. That her thoughts on this subject can be 'quickly summed up,' as she puts it, is not at all surprising. I would not presume to try to convince her that the practice 'has any virtue for anybody but manufacturers' because she has the most curious, views about industry and there is clearly no point of intellectual contact be- tween us. A manufacturer gets the same price for his product whether he establishes the retail price him- self or whether he leaves the retailer to do it. His motives for wanting resale price maintenance are not those attributed to him by Leslie Adrian. Why should a manufacturer want to set the retail price higher than retailers would set it? All the evidence shows that he does not do so.
'Selling the same article at two or more different prices' is not differentiation of the product, as Leslie Adrian unkindly explains to 'non-initiates; it is price discrimination. Product differentiation refers to the distinguishing characteristics which each manufac- turer can give to technically similar products. There is some measure of differentiation with most products and services. The goodwill built on a brand name is one form of product differentiation, but not all branded goods are subject to resale price mainten- ance as she implies. Some branded goods are subject to direct price maintenance and some are priced by the retailers. And where, in heaven's name, did Leslie Adrian get the idea that unbranded products are a mass-producer's surplus output subsidised by branded products?
Her plea that stop lists should he stopped shows how far she herself has to go—backwards—for they were prohibited .five years ago in section 24 of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1956. Perhaps it is 1 who should worry. about Leslie Adrian, since the only credible statement in , her article is that she would readily fall for the logic and the ethics of the trader's cry : 'Buy me last one and I'll give yer two.' —Yours faithfully,
Gerrards Cross. Buckinghanisb,•-
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