Evening star., 1942-09-11
Retail Trade Rises
As Usual Autumn
Activities Start
Reopenine Of Schools
And Colleges Provides
Strong Stimulus
B, the Associated Press.

BY Ine Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Sept. II. - Retail
business improved again this week
with the usual fall upswing. Dun
81 Bradstreet, Inc. reported today
in its weekly trade review.
The re-opening of schools and
colleges proved strong stimulus
to turnover. and evidences of freer
spending and some trading-up ten
dency were noted" the mercantile
agency said. Wholesale. markets
continued to be dominated by re-
ordering on fall merchandise"
Dollar sales were estimated slightly
below year ago, although the cur
rent weeks volume was for five
days because of Labor Day, which
fell a week earlier in 1941.
In addition to the pickup in
school items and clothing, women's
apparel, furniture and housewares
sales rose Distributors reported a
demand for higher quality mer-
chandise.
The weeks total volume was es-
timated to II per cent under the
full six-day week of l941. In the
South and Southwest business was
unchanged to per cent under a
year ago, and decreases reported
from other regions were Pacific
Coast to per cent; Middle. West,
6 to 10 per cent; Northwest. to IA
per cent; New England, 9 to 13 per
cent, and East, 8 to IL per cent.
Wholesalers reported good VOL
ume of recorders for fall merchan-
disc. Some noted, however, that in
certain lines the supply available
for retailers was limited by the ne
cessity of filling Government re-
quirements first.
End of Gains Foreseen.
A Nation wide survey by the
agency disclosed that fewer than
one-half of thousands of manufac-
| turers interrogated expected an in
crease in sales volume in the latter
half of 1912 over the like period of
last year.
Analysis of the first returns in
| dicated the most hopeful groups
were makers of machinery, electrical
equipment, food products and chem
icals. Those who believed they
faced the gloomiest prospects manu-
facture paper, mems apparel and
lumber.
Grouping all industries together,
the survey disclosed 40 out of every
100 canvassed expected larger sales;
80 expected about the same volume
as last year, and the remaining 80
| expected discouraging results in the
| months ahead. In this last 30 were
some who expected to be completely
out of business before the end of
1912 or early in 1943. Virtually all
of these projected the same line of
reasoning-inability to obtain ma
terials and inability to convert plant
facilities to war use.
There seems to be no easy an
swer to the question What kind Of
a plant Is convertible? Dun &,
Bradstreet said in commenting on
the survey. Some stories tell of un-
successful adaptation of present
equipment to war business, some
times at a wide profit and some
times merely makeshift to cover
overhead and keep skilled plant en-
ployees together.
"Other stories tell of discourage
ment and lack of ability to adapt
present equipment to any useful or
/ profitable endeavor. The comments
reflect the imagination of alert
manufacturers who have helped to
meet both the national crisis and
their own crisis by their energetic
approach to their problems Others
seem to have taken negative atti-
tude in which they consider them
selves casualties of the war pro-
duction program"