San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-03-05
Retail Trade This Spring
Expected to Exceed
All Records.
MORE BUY ON CREDIT
Is IL Per Cent Gain Noted
In Chain Store Sales
Last Month.
Rv Z r. ROYI,E.

Copyright by The San antonio Light
New York, Mar. 5.-There is every
possibility that department store
chain store and mail order retail trade
will exceed all known records this
spring. The volume Of business done
by those agencies in January estab'
lished q new high record for that
month and a QUESTIONABLE sent to
representative firms handling dry
goods, stoves, tools, machinery. hosiery
and drug store goods indicates that
practically all expect increased bust
ness this year.
The dry goods and clothing business
will be materially helped by the fact
that Easter this year will come late
well on toward the middle of April
This factor has not tended to help
wholesale business as many retail dis
tributors are waiting to the last mo-
ment for possible style changes before
stocking for Easter demand but care.
fully authenticated reports indicate
that stocks of department stores are
now between Is and 20 per cent high
er than they were year ago.
Aggregate sales of eleven large sys'
tens of chain stores last month
reached a total of $35, 193,111, gain
of 13 IL per cent over the correspond,
ing period last year. The combined
af lor mail nrnar
houses in the same period totaled
S31 sos, $50, a gain of Is per cent.
Work Clothing in Demand.
The demand for work clothing is
forcing manufacturers to employ in
creased forces to satisfy it, and is re.
garded as an accurate indication that
Industrial activity will continue a,
least for the next six months with &C
Bank deposits in the agricultural
districts no longer are regarded as @
criterion of the buying power of the
farmers, since il is known that loose
banking methods followed by closing
of many financial institutions in the
Northwest have caused many farmers
TO withhold deposits and turn to the
sock under the mattress" and "tht
teapot behind the clock" as places fol
keeping ready cash. This fact is count
ed on to have bearing on mail order
sales.
While the volume of cash sales has
shown an increase over the early part
of 1923, the volume of business done
on credit has been an even more strik'
ing feature of the retail situation. For
example. credit managers of the retail
stores in Cleveland, estimate that
their credit business ranges from %
per cent in the stores handling low
priced and popular lines to 30 per
cent in the most exclusive shops.
Credit Buying Increases.
Downtown retail stores there, ac-
cording to one credit manager, do
about 500 ,OOO. 900 worth of business
wear of which S40,000,000 is on
charge accounts. According to an Of
fetal of the Cleveland Retail Mer-
chants Board, about 100000 persons
in Cleveland have charge accounts
with members Of the board. He esti-
mates, however, that nearly 100000
individual buyers make use of these
accounts.
A similar trend has been apparent
in other cities throughout the country.
The increase in charge accounts in
many cases is attributed by store Of
ficials to the increased tendency to
buy washing machines, vacuum clean.
ers and other labor-saving household
equipment, as well rs pianos, phono-
graphs and radio sets on part pay
ment plan.
Taking the country as a whole, 50
per cent of the representative retail
merchants in all staple lines expect a
better business in the next three
months than in 1923. Sixty-eight per
cent Of them have expressed the opin-
ion that prices will be fairly steady
as compared with last years levels.
while 20 per cent expect increases and
II per cent predict prices will be low