Evening star., 1941-08-31
oresCrowded
As Scare Buying
Sweeps Nation
Secretly Goods Take
Spotlight Instead Of
Borguin Items
Ey the Associated Press.

.
NEW YORK, Aug. 30.-The silk
stocking scare has spread into other
lines, touching of a wave of panic !
buying in department stores straight
across the country, according to an
article In Business Week today.
Now consumers are grabbing every
thing they can lay their hands on,
the magazine states, and the stores
are finding that scarcity goods pack
customers in the way loss-leaders
never did.
In the week ended August 8
United States department store
sales were up 46 per cent over the
same period last year; in the week
ended August 16 the gain was 40
per cent When seasonally ad-
justed, the Federal Reserve Boards
index of department store sales
probably will hit an all-time high
this month.
1T took only a few days of the
stocking crisis to show stores that
they had q ready-made substitute
for the loss-leader," says Business
Week. Women stormed in looking
for stockings, but before they got
out, their jitters usually had led
them to stock up on sheets or make
a down payment on refrigerator.
Customers Attracted.
Stores which advertised their
stockings and other silk goods in the
midst of chaos, obviously did not
do SO merely with the object OF
bringing on a hosiery-counter riot.
To make certain of pulling Gus
toners into the store, where they
would be exposed to other mer-
chandise, such ads uniformly car
ried the lenged, Sorry, no mail or
phone orders Already, there are
indications that other lines in
which shortages or price rises are
anticipated also may do duty as
loss-leader substitutes"
1t is pointed out, however, that
for most stores the problem increas-
ingly is not to hypo sales by devices
ike these, but to keep consumer de-
mand from running away with
dwindling stocks.
For this reason, retailers are
pleased rather than otherwise that
the Government has relieved them
OF the responsibility for curbing in
stallment sales in many lines.
If stores had taken such action on
their own initiative, they would
have had to face the consequences
Of consumer displeasure and cut
throat competition.
Higher Prices Stunned.
Even so, stores may be driven to
drastic action to conserve stocks in
lines not affected by the Govern
ment installment curb. The most
obvious way to limit sales, of course,
is to raise prices, but this Is step
that retailers will take reluctantly.
The average manufacturer is once,
twice, or even three times removed
from the ultimate consumer. The
retailer is right on the firing line.
And, of course, like the manufac-
turer, he also has the once of Price
Administration and Civilian Supply
to think about.
Business Week reports that while
substantial sales increases are being
registered in all types of merchan-
disc, the really big play tends to
certain lines, with the mems,
women's and children's ready-to-
wear, which ordinarily form the
backbone of department stores
business, making a comparatively
weak showing. Broadly, the goods
which consumers are now demand
ing in panic proportions fall into
these categories:
Cd Merchandise on which severe
shortages or price rises are shortly
expected. Stockings, furs. women's
lingerie, home appliances are ex-
amples (2 Household furnishings
furniture, blankets, rugs, linens, ap-
pliances. Cd Straight luxury items
jewelry, silverware. musical instru-
ments, furs, sporting goods, luggage,
pictures. Buying in almost all these
lines was well under way before the
stocking panic precipitated the
present pandemonium The past
few weeks have merely accelerated
the trend.
Shows Signs of Subsiding.
'"The present buying wave does
show signs of subsiding, however"
Business Week says. Retailers ex-
pect sales to level off to show Is or
20 per cent gain over last year. If
they do this, the stores figure their
stocks of most lines will hold through
Christmas. If, however, sales re-
main at their present level for the
next couple Of months, many stores
may be seriously understocked by
the time Christmas gets here"