New-York tribune., 1921-03-27
Spring Trade
Good i'm Local
Retail Shops
Merchants Believe Peak of
the Season Will Come
Later; Hard TO Gauge the
Effect of Early Easter
Change in Buying Trend
Shoppers Now Seem to Have
Preconceived Ideas of
Values and Prices

TrccOncelVcd Ideas OF
Values and Prices
A PPAREL retailers about town are
a hoping that Easter has not marked
the peak of activities in their shops for
the spring season. Sentiment in the
large department stores and smaller
specially shops is decidedly against
widespread reductions following Easter,
and If the intentions formed after
casting up accounts and reviewing the
sales sheets for the past month are
adhered to, the man or woman who
postponed buying new spring outfit
until the after Easter sales is likely
to be disappointed.
The earliness of Easter this year,
together with the fact that stocks of
spring apparel on the retailers shelves
are decidedly light, is the principal
factor in influencing the determine
ton to run counter to normal and post
pone the spring sales until a later date.
Merchants believe that the height of
the season has not yet come. During
the past twp weeks the retailers have
watched their customers more closely
than ever before for. evidence of a
definite trend in buying Most of them
think they have discovered it. 1t is
epltomized as follows by the executive
OF well~known speciality shop in the
midtown section: "The ultimate con-
sumner has come back strong. She is
buying in greater quantities than last
year, but is insisting on value received
Tor every dollar that she spends"
great change has come over the
consuming public in comparison to it's
Dehavlor last year, according to the re-
taliers. In the average shop a year
ago customers were searching for
merchandise Of certain style, color or
character. If they found it they bought
and asked the price afterward. The
nrst idea was centered on the goods.
NOW, customers apparently make up
their minds before visiting the shops
concerning the proper amount of
money to spend for a new suit, dress
or hat and religiously stick to- their
preconceived figure.
This trait is being turned to the
advantage of most of the retailers. A
prominent retail advertising manager
says that he and others in his craft
are capitalizing this new trend in
shopping psychology by featuring
prices conspicuously in their advertise
ing copy.
woman now plans her shopping before
she leaves home. She has a definite
amount of money to spend. There is
no use lodging the truth that incomes
have been restricted in many families
and in others the endless preaching
or less definite budget system. Our
task is to reach the person with the
preconceived idea Of the proper amount
to spend. Most of the stores are pur-
SUNG this policy and it has worked
1T is difficult to measure the amount
or increased business attributed to the
normal impetus of Easter buying. The
retailers say that their sales have been,
extremely satisfactory for the last
month. Compared to last year at this
time, or the period Immediately before
Easter, they show up remarkably we'll.
Five out of seven retailers in the Fifth
Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street shop
ping section assert that their sales for
the last two weeks were 10 per cent or
more ahead of last year in money
value, which with the lower price scale
now in effect means much greater
volume in units. The other two had
no exact figures at hand, but declared
that sales were fully as heavy as in the
corresponding period last year. !.
WOnserls Trade Better
Broadly speaking, the women's ap-
parel business has been better than the
mems. This is explained by some mer-
chants as the logical reaction from the
multiplicity of sales that were held late
last year and early this year, in which
men were given an opportunity to pur-
chase clothing suitable for both winter
and spring at extremely low prices.
Mems furnishings also were strongly
featured in the reduction sales in Jan
uary, and these sales were heavily
patronized. AS result it is believed
that the male population is fairly we'll
supplied with clothing.
In the women's apparel field sales
have been strongest in dresses, wraps
and separate skirts. Men have kept
the lightweight overcoat departments
fairly busy, but have not rushed into
the suit, hat and furnishings depart
ments.
Shoes, provided the retailer has had
the, particular styles in vogue, have
sold we'll, but there has been little
or no call for staple footwear. Both
men and women at present are demand
ing shoes of the novelty type, and the
retailers see no swing toward conserv-
atism as yet. The fall may tell a diff |
ferent story, but most OF the merchants
are content to "cash in" on the pre-
vailing fashions.