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The Seaforth News, 1957-01-10, Page 3Ui: What's New About Shopping Centres Not long ago a man drove his mother-in-law to Shopper's World, an ultra -modern shop- ping centre in Framingham, Mass,, there to browse among its glittering stores. When . she emerged some time later, arms laden with packages, she discov- ered that the scamp had driven off and left her. At length the lady took her problem to ' an official of the shopping centre. "What can I do?" she asked plaintively, He summoned . an automobile and chauffeur, waiting and ready for just such emergencies. "Where do you live, madam?" the official inquired. She told him and was promptly driven home -all the 200 -odd miles to Barre, Vt. The incident is related at shop- ping centres all over Canada and the United States as a sort of moral of the trade, for it is pre- cisely in this fashion -by going out of . their way to please the customer -that shopping centres are revolutionizing North Amer- ican buying habits. The most striking example of this departure is the very loca- tion of these 20th century ba- zaars. Across Canada, in the past five years, stores have closed up shop downtown or branched out to join' in thegreat trek to s u,- burbia, Their new stand is the shopping centre, a meticulously planned and integrated group of establishments -usually domina- ted by a massive department store or supermarket -catering to the suburban householder with everything from minced steak to mink coats. "Merchants are now going to the people in- stead of waiting for the people to come to them," says Carl Pep- percorn, executive vice-presi- dent of Fairweather's, an old To- ronto firm that now does busi- ness in eight shopping centres. "And we like it that way." And so do the people. In the past year Canadians spent close to $250 million -about four per- cent of the national retail sales- in 30 -odd shopping centres from Vancouver, which boasts the first in Canada, to Dartmouth, N.S., which has one of the new- est. And this, evidently, is just a start. Scores more are rising in subdivided turnip fields on the fringes of our major cities. The biggest single builder is Princi- pal Investments Ltd., of Toronto, which operates 10 shopping "plazas" in Ontario. )3y 1960 its• officials expect to have a nation- widechain of 40 or more, with their collective cash registers ringing up sales of about $400 million annually. By then, too, if the present trend continues, about 100 shopping centres across the land will be grossing in the neighborhood of one billion dol- lars. One of the surest signs of the new trend is the fact that ,the two giants of Canadian mer- chandising, Eaton's and Simp- son's, are joining it. Eaton's has opened its first suburban store in a $12 million centre that Princi- pal Investments is building out- side Oshawa, Ont., and Simpson's is already at work in the Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre, an $18 million creation of financier E. P. Taylor. Though the idea of shopping centres is only slightly younger than the wheel - the ancient Greeks and Romans having built some dandies - their pheno- menal growth in recent times can be traced to one of the wheel'smost modern applica- tions -the automobile. In Canada's postwar expansion, the auto's mobility enabled hun- dred's of thousands of people to' find more breathing room to hold down jobs in overcrowded cities and yet take out ranch - style mortgages in the burgeon- ing suburbs. But the blessings were not unmixed. For if Tril- lium township lacked such ur- ban defects as smog and "No Parking" signs, it also lacked one of the city's major conveni- ences -handy shopping facilities. Here wasa vast new market and enterprising men were quick to grasp it. Real estate develop- ers went out into the erstwhile sticks, erected strips of a dozen shops and leased them to grocers, druggists, haberdashers •and bankers. For the suburban housewife it meant that Main street was coming to her, and she responded with dollars. Today these community strips are giving rise to mammoth re- gional centres, 50 or 60 varied stores that draw upon a, metro- politan area of 300,000 yeople or. more . and provide -significantly -acres of free parking space for the cars that carry them. Thereby a paradoxical situa- tion has been created: although shopping centre merchants ori- ginally went out of their way to serve the customer, today many customers -city-dwellers- are driving out of their way to pat- ronize one-stop suburban market places, thus avoiding the crush in long-established in -town and downtown shopping districts. Naturally, the effect of this is being felt in the city. Some downtown merchants, unable to beat the suburban 'competition, are joining in. But many others are fighting back, wooing the buyer with everything from im- proved services and free trans- portation to singing commercials and gaudy give-aways, While shcpping centres have burst upon the scene with all the chrome trappings of a modern phenomenon, they are, in fact, anything but new: The early Ro- mans went by chariot or afoot to the fora, the city square where legal, cultural and mercantile business was carried on. The Greeks also had a word for it, the agora. But whereas these market places were laid out to serve city folks, today's shopping centres are designed primarily for people who prefer to live outside town. Ever increasing thousands do so. Between 1941 and 1951 the population of Canadian urban areas increased 27 percent. Of these new residents, 68 percent moved into the suburbs, In the same period, automobile regis- trations increased 63 percent. More people were escaping to dormitory suburbs by night; more cars were clogging down- town streets by day. In many major cities, shopping became an ordeal of milling crowds, dented fenders and frayed nerves. The first merchants to catch the commercial possibilities of this situation were the big gro- cery chains. They put up giant supermarkets in the roomier su- burbs and provided, along with the crunchy -raunchy cereals and quick-frozen TV dinners, the acres of parking space that downtown couldn't hope, to match. These suburban groceterias were an instant success, drawing shoppers even from the cities that bred them. A key reason is given by Scott Feggans, director of advertising and public rela- ' tions- for Dominion Stores. "When people are setting out in the family car to spend $15, $20 or $30 on food," he says, "they will go an extra distance to shop in a one-stop store." -By Don Davidson in Imperial Oil Review. MERRY MENAGERIE "Well, I found •otic - why- we (brrr) hibernate!" CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 57. Turn right i 1. Offer to buy' ; 4. Resinous t' substance Pronounce. / 7. holy '.12. Jiffy 13. Biblical ruler 14. Opponent X1.6. Retrieve 17. Saying 18. Solemn i wonder ,19. Sack 21. Scotch river 22. Summon i .publicly 24. (love up and , down 45. 'finest 26. Past '107. Ganme `en 21. Make sorrowful 35. Banished 27. Red doer 28. Shellfish 41. Performed 42. Rave 43. Support 84. Stake 45.; Spot on a playing rard 116. Staring openmouthed ;.. 28. Hydraulic motor 92. Of the morning 3, Night before H. Lately acquired 5. Beg • 6. Beam of light DOWN 1. Tribunal 2. Solid water 3. Ton -sided figure 4. Reside 5, Have being' 6. Chemical element 7. Boast 8. Cover 9. Shirk 10. Wise men 11. Frozen rain 8S. Device for 16- Be Indebted fastening 20, Humbled 59. kingly 22. Gentle stroke 40. Marble 23, Grow old 42. Chest bone 84. By the side of 44. Curve 26. Garden plot 48. Vtetim 87. Mingle 47. Himalayan 28. Bounder marmot 80. Bird's beak 49. Pulpy fruit 82. Hanging 50. By birth lnosrly 23. i;ternity 54. Openwork fabric 86. Scattered rubbish 21. Sheep , 2 3 f/.0 ;'% 4 2 o [,}y'�•• 8 9 /0 /: /2 •. l3 {: • /4 /5 /0 • :: ffiii l7 22 2,i :CC•, 24iiiiiiiiii \\\\ 25 2 20 \\,t, , 29� 30 �rtrt 31 3' 33 38..39; ,4/ v\4z 43 -- y44 II 45d MO 02 . 73' , - �� 4 55 - •• ?t 56 12/5 57 Answer elsewhere on this page. TRIGGERS A CHUCKLE - A movie poster adds a note of humor to the grim Suez Canal situation. This British soldier in Port Said has decorated his armored vehicle with an cid for the film "Fastest Gun Alive", TIIHA1N FRONT The following article from "The Rural New Yorker" is about, as good a portrayal of the. producer - consumer problem. which bedevils farmers- and those who consume farm prod- ucts - just as much here in Canada as it does south of the Border. Therefore, I'm passing it along to you. * *_ The response to the Rural New Yorker's letter contest on ways and means to improve producer - consumer relations was beyond our most sanguine expectations. It takes a good deal of time to think out a problem, and more time to set it down in black and white. Many folks have the urge to write but, what with one prob- lem or another •in the home or on the farm, just cannot find the time to get around to the job. An allowance of only 10 days to write and send in letters did, we realize, work to many folks' dis- advantage. Equally well appre- ciated is the fact that the cash prizes offered - $25, $15, and $10 - did not represent the proverbial pot of gold. But this decision was deliberate on our part. We believed that the best letters would be written from the heart, not for the pocket- book. In view of the enthusias- tic response from readers, we feel that our small effort bas been amply rewarded. . . . First -Prize Letter The unvarnished truth of pro- ducer -consumer relations is that the farmer wants as much as he can get for his product, and the the consumer wants to buy it as 'cheaply as possible. On the sur- face it would appear that their interests are divergent. This was the theory of Lennin who form- ed soviets of city workers; ex- alting them at the expense of the farmer. The result has become the greatest single problem be- hind the "iron curtain" today - DOGLOMAT - Putting on the dog in top hat, tails (well, one tail anyhow) ; and pants. (he's been running), this envoy extra- ordinaire "pawses" between. planes at an air• terminal in Miami, Fla." The pooch, pass- port and all, was .on' his way to join Hugh Woodward, at the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia. Russia's ' ever -recurring agricul- tural crises. Actually, producer and con- sumer are dependent to a great extent on each other. The city worker needs the farmer to pro- duce his food. The farmer does this so well that it is the cheap- est item on the wholesale mark- et. When it is retailed, the price is usually doubled. The farmer needs the city worker, for he is the customer for farm products. When his wages are high, he can afford to buy. When they are low, he cuts down and the gro- ceries pile up on the store shelves. The farmer wants as much as he can get, but what he gets is a mass of technological inven- tion and new machinery to re- duce labor. He winds up work- ing like a galley slave to pay for them. Because of his increas- ed efficiency he is penalized in the marketplace for producing so-called surpluses. The consumer buys as cheaply as he can, which is hardly ever. He pays Alaska prices for every 'thing he buys. No, they don't do so well pitted against each other, the city mouse and his country cousin. Their hard-earned mon- ey seems to float off into space where the space men (the mid- dlemen) pile it as high as the moon. The farmer -consumer problem is like the weather. Everyone talks about it but no one does anything about it. Therefore, I would like to present an idea that has already been tried with "good results in the Scandinavian countries - the cooperative sys- tem. In Norway, Sweden and Den- mark, farmer cooperatives and consumer cooperatives function together to their mutual benefit. We also have numerous exam- ples of successful cooperatives in this country. Many possibilities are opened by using this approach. For instance, when home freezers first appeared, various "food plans" were pro- posed to the public. But to my. knowledge they were never used by farmers to sell their pro- ducts by cooperative contract to the consumer. It could be tried. A consumer co-op. could con- tract for a food item with a farmer co-op. Perishable pro- ducts could be merchandised in frozen form, The joint cooperative could serve the "same function as a labor union. The very presence of a labor union In a particular field has a tendency to raise wages even in non-union areas. Producer -consumer co-operatives could have the same effect. Suc- cessful, efficiently managed pro- d u c e r consumer cooperatives would .help to insure a fair price to ;all. By using such a coopera- tive plan we could refute the ideas of Marx and Lenin that the peasantry . (farmers) must be crushed sothat the proletariat (city workers) can rule the world. We have a chance in America while we still have freedom of choice. I guess sardines are one of the few families that consider dad a success when he gets canned., Winter Was Winter Way Back When At the time when the white gate meant most to me, I was between nine and twelve years Old, and those years lay between 1896 and the turn of the century. In those years on the coast of Maine there were no automobiles, almost no telephones, no gasoline engines, no electric lights, almost no bathrooms, or furnaces, or refrigerators, no running water, no boughten bread, no paper towels, no egg beaters, no soap flakes. In place of these ameni- ties, which today make the run- ning of a household compartively easy, there were hard work in which all had a share, the com- fortable knowledge of what one's days would be like, for they were usually very much the same, a sense of security .. . There was also the constant excitement of the weather . Its tyranny over us was most evident, of course, in the winter; but in the year 1896 and for many years following, Maine winters claimed more than half the number of the months. Late September and all of October meant sharp frosts and early lamplight; November, high, biting winds and the first drifting snow- flakes. From December until April, except for an occasional and brief January thaw, we were buried in snow, which lay three or four feet deep over fields and pastures and through which oxen, yoked to heavy sledges, plunged to their shoulders and men with shovels plowed to their hips in a fierce battle to break the roads. The mercury dropped to zero and below and remained there for days; the ice sealed our bay for seven miles out to sea and crack- ed with the sound of guns as the tide crept in and out beneath it; the timbers in our attics snapped at night; the air was cut by the blue, wavering breaths of muffled, venturesome people; children un- dressed by kitchen stoves or roar- ing fireplaces and, clasping hot flatirons or soapstones wrapped in cloths or in newspapers, dash- ed upstairs to huddle between blankets and under patchwork quilts in frigid rooms with tightly closed windows . . , When we went to school on bitter days (though in deference to the weather there was no primary or grammar school in January and February), bundled up in knitted hoods and heavy reefers, woolen mufflers and long black leggings, we carried hot baked potatoes in our mittened hands and kept these warm on the top of the schoolhouse stove against our return home. And whenever the weather allowed us to drive in our two -seated yellow pung behind our two black horses, we fondled these hot potatoes while my father in his bearskin coat and cap held the reins in his heavy fur gloves, and the sound of sleighbells cut the piercing air. From "The White Gate." by Mary Ellen Chase. These brisk winter winds are treacherous. A friend got some- . thing in his eye, discovered it was a foreign sports car. NDAYSCII00 LESSON By Rev. R, Barclay Warren B.A., B.D. The New Heaven and Earth Revelation 21: 1-8, 22-27 Memory Selection: I heard a great voice out of heaven saying) Behold, the tabernacle of God h 'With men, and he will dwell will them, and they shall be his pee. ple, and God himself shall bi with them, and be their God And God shall wipe away ail tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death. Revela- tion 21:3-4. One preacher thought it we terrible for young people to hi bothering about Heaven and Hell, He said, "It is a form of escapism, Religion is somethini to make them different here axle now, and not worrying about Heaven and Hell. - Whethei there is a Hell as a state after death is a question upon wliici Christians differ." Scarcely anyone objects to. preaching about Heaven •but' many object to the mention of Hell. Jesus taught as realistically of one as of the other. So does John in today's lesson. If we re- ject this teaching we might B4 well reject the whole Bible. Heaven is a place of incompar- able beauty. Sorrow, pain ant death cannot enter there. Heaver is a holy place, "There shall is no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketi a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." W4 must turn from our sins here and believe on Jesus Christ, th4 Lamb of God to have our names in the book of life. Those who have not made the required pre- paration for heaven shall be cast into hell: "The fearful, and un- believing, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremon- gers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars." Heaven and Hell are realities. We should think about them now. We should choose the nar- row way that leads to Heaven. By the grace of God we can live now so that we shall dwell eter- nally in the presence of the Lord and serve Him continually. The man who has no thought for the hereafter will live for this world. "But what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul." Let us get our eye on the heavenly goal. Then we will live a life that will be a blessing to our fellow man right now. I wouldn't want to miss heaven. Would you? Upsidedown to -Prevent Peeking EEM :©017I'MEW VEM Ems© ©IDPAI'r.' E©H01©© ©I OW- r1115- ©ED NEW ©©L1 f1 EDEE ©OM ©E • MEURION ODIEMEP EMOMEM DEO EE0r i OEMOO it EI rami .L1f EEO HE GOT UP TO WIN - The news -camera catches some dramatic moments in Mexico City's bull ring when Chano Ramos, a prom- ising novice matador, had a close brush with death. In top photo, the bull charges just as Ramos ottempts a "farol", a difficult cape movement while on his knees. Ramos was tossed and in center photo he crouhces underneath the maddened animal as an attendant rushes to the rescue. In bottom photo, Ramos lies motionless in center of the ring. He rose and killed the bull. Judges awarded him one of the bull's ears taker of an exceptionally fine performance.