The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-13
HOLIDAY SHOPPING.

OF all the year this is pre-eminently
the shopping month. Everybody is, or
will shortly be, buying in anticipation
of the great holiday that marks the
festal climax of the twelve-months.
More gifts are given at Christmas
! than any other time of the year, and
the spirit of happiness, and of making
others happy, is abroad in the land.
| Thanksgiving has become a great
holiday, but Christmas will continue to
hold first place in the affections of the
| people, for the reason that Thanksgiv-
ing is regarded as a feast day merely,
while Christmas is the day on which
we dispense charity and give tokens of
affection and remembrance. The No
Vember holiday appeals to the appetite
for food and amusement; the December
holiday appeals to both of these but
nature which finds delight in giving
and seeing pleasure follow the gift.
However, it is not the purpose of this
article to discuss the ethics of the
Christmas spirit. but to consider the
matter on its more practical side; that
of shopping for the holiday. There
are, of course, hundreds of people who
will be necessarily obliged to put off
the holiday shopping to the last mo-
ment, for financial reasons. But there
are other hundreds here who are in
a position to shop early in the season
and thus ''avoid the rush. make more
satisfactory selections and get greater
pleasure out of their buying If they
will only take time by the forelock
And too many of these people have
fallen into the habit of making their
holiday purchases in other cities. For
some reason that defies a satisfactory
explanation they imagine that a New
York, Boston or Paris label on a box
makes it's contents ever so much more
desirable than if the box came under
Savannah label. And, oddly enough,
nearly all such people draw their in
comes from Savannah. They get their
money at home, but prefer to spend it
abroad. Could anything be more illogi-
cal?
Savannah stores are showing lines of
holiday goods that will compare fav-
orably with similar lines offered in any
other city, in this country or abroad.
And the prices in the Savannah stores
are reasonable. In many instances
they are lower than the prices charged
in the stores of other cities, owing to
the excellent freight advantages en-
joyed by this city. There is, therefore.
no good reason why any citizen of
Savannah should send to another city
for an order of holiday goods, at least
until an investigation of the home
market has been made. The Savannah
merchants are perfectly willing to
compete with merchants of other cities
for business. If they cannot furnish
what the prospective purchaser wants
or If the purchaser can show a scale of
lower prices elsewhere, then the Sa-
vannah merchants are entirely willing
for the trade to go out of town. But
they think, with reason, that thew
ought to be given a chance to supply
the home demand.
. Let the reader of this article who
has been in the habit of sending awav
for holiday purchases resolve to be
patriotic this season and give the home
merchants a chance, and visit the
home stores and note what they have
to offer. If he (or she) will do this. we
are sure that few orders will go out of
town this year.