A pamphlet just published by the Amalgamated. Union of Shop Assis ants contoing the awe-inspiring statement that there are 1,000.00" shops Great Britain, that tone to every 44 of the population, man, woman and child, "The pamphlet says. the proprietor-owners, one person' in covery twelve lives bypassing' on.
foods to the other eleven, Or doesn't live. "Tu three years! there have been more than 10,000 bankruptcies of shopkeepers. involve. ing Usbilities of 15,000,000. The miracle is that there are not more.
Yet, the, relatively, small man makes up the bulk of the retail trade. The annual value of the Tatter is estimated at £2,361,000,000. Ca-operative stores account for 9 per cent, the great stores for 21, they average-sized and small shops for all the rest. How on earth they sell enough to keep going is a standing mystery. One can understand. that Provision and clothing shops dea leady trade. But what of the Swarms of luxury shope—those tht cater for the decoration of life, not Its necessities?
Apropos it is sad to read that the! shopkeepers of Victoria Dock Road, which used to carry all the trafic to! and from the London Docks, are rapidly being ruined through the great Silvertown Way which was opened last September. 'The now! road is excellent for tram@ie, but, fatal 10 business in the old' road, which is now empty and derelict, and. one after another its. shopkeepers are putting up their shutters West "Ham Borough Council is worrying about ite rates, after the nature of such bodies.
But could not all the old houses be pulled down and converted into flats? Tenants would swarm, overcrowding be relieved and rates saved,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.