New-York tribune., 1921-01-23
Business Visitors Flock Here
i'm Greater Numbers Than
in Prosperous 1920 Days,
but More Conservative
Purchases Are Restricted
Wholesale Prices Reflect
Improved Sentiment; Dis
tressed Stocks Disappear

ulClmate consumer Will not require
much before spring.
January is the buyers month in New
York, and, despite the business depres-
sion, this year is running true to form.
Some of the most optimistic of manu-
facturers and wholesalers in this
market, who were lamenting the dearth
of buying only month or two ago, are
now convinced that the great buying
strike is ended, that retailers-and the
public-have cast aside their resent
ment against prices and are once more
making their purchases on normal
scale.
Digging deeper into the present
situation, however, it is apparent that,
although the buyers are here in at
least as large numbers as during the
larger, if the comparison is made by
the lists published daily in The Trib-
une- they are going about their bust
ness in more conservative manner
than the wholesale market has seen in
years.
Last year every buyer was actively
seeking merchandise and buying any
thing and everything offered. When
the wholesaler told the buyer that the
earliest delivery on certain lot of
merchandise would be six or eight
months hence the buyer eagerly placed
his name on the order blank, firmly be-
lieving that in the ascending market
the goods would be worth much more
when delivered than they were when
ordered.
The slump in prices that set in as
early as May and continued through
the summer, reaching precipitous
slide down the scale in the late au-
tumn, found most of the BUYERS with
large stocks that had to be moved at q
great sacrifice in profit, if not at an
actual loss. In turn, the buyer caught
some strong language from his en-.
Jority of the buyers who have made
their annual pilgrimage to New York
this year look careworn and aged from
the vicissitudes. through which they
have passed. Some have lost weight,
and women buyers. who predominant,
especially in women's garment lines,
have acquired evidences of worry.
Markets Stimulated
However, the influx of buyers has
had decidedly stimulating effect upon
the wholesale markets, where buying
during November and December
reached low ebb The lack Of buying
became almost joke in wholesale cir
cles. Printed signs reading Make
Noise Like an Order" or Start Order
ing Something" made their appearance.
Alfred Fantl, one of the best known
resident buyers in the city, who rep
resents l48 retail stores in all parts of
the country, said that the number of
buyers in the market was larger than
usual at this time of the year. He
inquired that the stores he represents
had more than 500 individual buyers in
the New York market during the week
Things are looking BETTER" said Mr..
Fantl, and the buyers are operating in
fairly large way. However, tiiev arc
ordering only for a few months in ad-
vance and are not actuated to make
heavy purchases by a fear of j short
age Of goods or rapidly rising prices"
Other resident buyers were hesitant
to assert that the number of buyers
now IN the market exceeded that of last
year. Many of thcm said that some re
talleTs have rot yet sent their buyers
here Tor their annual winter trips and
that the buying pilgrimages probably
would extend through February. There
IS noticeable tendency among buyers
to spend longer period III the market
here this year than they have for some
years past. This, explained buyer.
probably is due to their desire to find
out more about conditions than was
u
tion or safety first is evident wherever
buyers are to be found.
Prices Being Advanced
The head Of common buying Office
maintained by more than a dozen Of
the leading stores in this country haz-
arded CUES. that the number Of buy-
ers here now was slightly under that
Of last year. In his own organization
the largest number Of buyers in the
market at one time last year was 10
The peak so far this year was reached
on Monday, when 1o6 buyers regis
tered. On Wednesday this had dwindled
to eighty eight.
some manufacturers and whole
salers,' he said, "are using the large
number OF buyers as basis of argu-
ment tor advancing their prices, but
lt is not working out very we'll. The
buyer now has a good idea of value
Also he is working under stricter or
ders from his boss than ever before.
THE retailer is faced with two in
huences which seem to preclude higher
prices. One is the evident attitude of
the public in its demand for low prices
and the other is high overhead cost
of doing business, which can be JUS
titled only by large volume, which, in
turn, means keen competition and gen
Slal pIlCe CULllUE.
This theory seems to be borne out
in actual practice. Most of the buyers
are looking for cheap merchandise:
that is, cheap in price, but as high in
quality as possible. They want real
values and seem to know them better
than they did year ago. when the
cry was merchandise at any price"
Distress" Stocks Disappear
Buyers now here assert, however.
that the distress" merchandise, forced
or the market by manufacturers and
wholesalers who were in need of ready
cash, has about DISAPPEARED. Offers Of
spot cash for merchandise have failed
to bring much response for several
weeks. This may be due to a lack of
such merchandise or to the ability of
holders to finance themselves until
normal demand for their goods re-
turns.
The wholesale distributors or dry
goods jobbers throughout the country
also have been fairly large buyers Of
new merchandise within the last few
weeks, resulting in advances in prices
of cotton goods and silks from the
low levels named by producers late
the low prices cut under actual cost
OF production and were made merely to
stimulate buying activity and get or
ders on the books, that the mills might
be reopened or run on longer working
week schedules. Reports from New
England Indicate that production in