The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-08
AVERAGE INCREASE 1. OF 30 PER CENT IN BUSINESS IN YEAR Cullen Completes Investiga- ton for Comparison of November, 1914, and
 November, 1915 ONLY FEW REPORT
 COLLECTIONS POOR Grocery Stores, Department Stores, Clothing Stores, Jewelry Stores
 and Hardware Stores
 Were Visited

The investigation of merchandising con-
 ditions that has been under way for the
 past five days by H. D. Cullen, local mem-
 Der of the educational research commit tee of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, discloses some important and Interesting facts about business in
 Birmingham as well as the prospects for the next year.
 The individual reports were made to
 Mir Cullen by the owners and managers
 of the various businesses reporting in con- tidence, it being understood that no names
 were to be made public in the matter
 They show conditions exactly as they are
 rot as the business man or the booster
 wants them to be, or as he would repre-
 sent them to be.
 Five lines of business were investi-
 gated, reports from several stores in each
 line being obtained in order to get at the
 general average of business done. The
 lines investigated were grocery stores, department stores, clothing stores jewelry
 stores and hardware stores.
 BIG INCREASE SHOWN
 Figures compiled from all the reports
 in the various lines investigated show
 that the actual volume of business trans acted in November, 1915, as compared
 with November, 1914, was exactly BOA per cent greater. This Is really a remarkable showing and speaks well for conditions in this district. The only line of business that reported an actual decrease In sales for the month mentioned was the hard ware business. Hardware men explain this by saying that the building trades are very quiet and that they do not look for any decided revival in their business before spring. Another reason given, by
 more than one, is that in spite of the amount of work being done in the district no more men are actually employed than at this time last year-that is, skilled | labor, as the improvements that many of the companies have made in their plants
 has enabled them to cut down their labor costs, sometimes as much as 50 per cent The best sales report made by any store was made by one of the large department stores, which reported an increase in busi- ness for the month of November over ] November of last year of 61 per cent with
 an increase in their advertising expendi-
 ture of only 1 per cent. Another store reported an increased business of over l 50 per cent, with an increase in the adver- Using expenditures of 10 per cent As stated above, the average increase re- ported was BOA per cent, while the adver- Using expenditures were only ' per cent more than in the same month of 1914
 COLLECTIONS ARE GOOD As to collections, 50 per cent of the stores report collections normal, 33 per cent report them good and only 16 per cent report poor collections. Tn this classification, good" is the highest rat ing given, normal next and poor last Reports of the amount of stock carried showed that practically the same amounts of stock are carried as in November of last year.
 Among the comments made on the pros- poets for business for 1916 were the fol- lowing:
 'Very good.'
 Exceptionally good"
 Prospects look good we are going after a still larger increase in the months that are ahead of us."
 "Very good; better than in years" Much better"
 'T think that it is good' Better"
 Seem to be good The figures for Birmingham will be published in the January number of As- sociated Advertising, the official maga- zine of the Associated Advertising Liubs of the World, along with the figures from about 150 other cities over the country This report of merchandising conditions is the second that the Associated clubs has made and will show conditions as they actually exist over the entire country. The report last year was highly | spoken of by President Wilson and other | high officials and did much to establish a feeling of confidence in the minds of both business and political circles