Evening star., 1927-11-01
CHRISTMAS BUYING
BARRAGE OPENED
Mail Order and Chain Stores
Feel First EffectS--Trade
Growing.
BY J. G. ROYLE.


NEW YORK, November 1.-The
first guns OF the Christmas BUYING
campaign have been fred from the
mail order catalogues. The tarm
communities have money To spend
and they have been sending in checks
and money orders at u pace which IN
sures that the leading houses i'll the
field will surpass their 1925 sales rec
ords before January /, 1925.
Owing to the rapid pace at which
both cotton and wheat have gore to
market this year, the mail order buy
ing has come earlier than usual. md
combined sales of the leaders in this
field in the last six weeks have shown
a gain of 13 to Is per cent, as com
pared with last year.
These sales, however. are only the
preliminary barrage which is preced-
ing the attack on the retail counters.
Chain stores have been the next TO
benefit and it is now conservatively
estimated that their sales in general
Will exceed those of 1926 by l0 to ID
per cent The department stores up
TO October had difficulty in keeping
sales totals within reaching distance
of those of the previous year, but the
spurt in the next two months seems
likely to mOre@than make up for this
early slackneSs.
Adequate Sales Forces.
The department stores were handi-
capped during the Spring and sum
mer by adverse weather conditions,
but the principal factor which dis
turbs them now is the problem OF ade-
ouate sales forces. Not all of the de-
partment stores and chains are firmly
intrenched behind their stocks. how
ever The general level of prices is
somewhat lower than year ago, ana
the margin of profit has had to be
made up in saving of costs ana more
efficient distribution.
There is no question that retail
sales forces have failed to improve in
the same ratio as has been the case
with industrial personnel. There are
continued reports of surplus white
collar workers, but they are not the
right type of white collar workers.
There is an insistent demand for cour.
teous, intelligent. efficient statesmen
and women, and the supply is SO small
that many executives are having to
develop or grow" their own sales
people.
The personal touch is seemingly q
necessary element to adequate dis
tribution. At least mail order houses,
which have been supposed to derive
much advantage from the fact that
they had no statesmen. have found 1t
expedient to establish retail stores and
many are employing the equivalent Of
travelling statesmen to place their cata-
logues with prospective customers, ac-
cording to DR.. Julius Klein OF the DE.
partment of Commerce.
1t cannot be overlooked, as Magnus
w Alexander, president of the Ma
tional Industrial Conference Board,
has pointed out, that the present pros
perity has been attended by steadily
increasing competition. This has
meant steady narrowing profit mar
gins. nding this fact, the
cases in which goods are being offered
at cost or. less than cost merely to at
tract customers TO store are growing
steadily smaller. There has been a
sharp decline in bargain sales.
Wage Farmers Benefited.
Wage earrlers have benefited by this
since the demand for intelligent serv
ice has gone up while prices for the
necessities have gone down. The work.
ers average weekly earnings today
measured by what 1t costs him to live
are more than third larger than
they were before the war. according
to j H. Friedai, labor expert. And
with competition increasing and profi'
rat!as declining, savings Of small costs
are increasing in Importance.
The bankers of the country who arc
in closest touch with the retail sit
ug:ion are optimistic in general One
great banking company reports mer
chandisc is moving rapidly through
channels of distribution. Sales of 551
department stores in the last month
were almost equal to those of a year
earlier. The bankers hold that in thu
face Of favorable trade. reports and
high levels of employment and buying
power, there seems no indication o.
prolonged or violent decline in bust
ness.