Evening star., 1943-01-17
Merchants Prepare
10 Concentrate on
Essential Needs
Plon to Cut FriIIs,
Seek SimpIificotion
OF OPA Rules
BY JOHN b. LEWIS,
Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK, Jan. 16.-That leg
endary American habit of keeping
up with the Joneses" can be main
tanned in 1943-because the Jones
family won't be able to buy any
frills, either.
Merchants plan to provide every
essential for modern living that the
law will allow, but you won't have
SO many clerks waiting on you and
you may have to carry your pack
ages home.
To meet the tremendous changes
brought about by a wartime econ
omy, members of the National Re-
tail Dry Goods Association labored
with the problems of price control
and diminishing supplies during
their wartime convention at the
Hotel Pennsylvania this week and
went back to their stores full
of hope.
Summing up, one retail leader
said that Americans will do with
fewer and better clothes, a great
many "alternates" or substitutes
that are entirely efficient and a
gradual change in services which
customers will take in stride.
Simpler Forms Sought.
The retail merchants are deter
mined, however, to have their tasks
eaSed somewhat by more simplified
forms of price control regulations
which require staffs of experts in
the larger stores and often COM
pletely battle busy proprietors of
small concerns.
Irving c. Fox, general counsel of
the NRDGA in Washington, said
that OPA regulations can and
should be written in much more
simple language and that nation
wide conformity with the vast num-
Der of regulations could only be
achieved by simplification.
Supporting this statement was
Senator James E. Murray, Democrat.
of Montana, chairman of the special
Senate committee to study the prob
lens of American small business.
who said that the public should
always know what the Government
is doing to adjust the civilian eco
nomic front and that full ex-
planation of the need for rationing
programs should be given at all
times.
DR.. J. Kenneth Galbraith, deputy
OPA administrator in Washington,
said, IF price control is to be effec-
tive, 1t must be tougher in the year
ahead"
Housewives to Be Hired.
Among the predictions for 1943
made at the annual convention of
the retailers were the following:
That many of the Nations 30
000, 900 housewives would be called
from their kitchens to help as sales
persons in the 1,770000 retail stores
OF the country.
That self selection" would be-
come a feature Of department store
service, allowing the customer par
TALLY to wait on himself.
That frills would virtually vanish
from salesmanship and service, but
that advertising would remain nor
NAL.
And that all essential needs of
war workers and the civilian pop
ulation would be supplied over the
counter.
E. H. Scull, prominent New York
merchant and former head of the
clothing section of the WPB, said
that retail stores in 1912 had rolled
up an all-time record of success
and that in 1943 merchants will
have to climb into the ring and get
toughened up"
But while the war period was
painted as time of struggle, men
with statistics on the future pic
tured the postwar era as one
promising abounding prosperity.
Eric A. Johnston, president of the
United States Chamber of Com
merce, said: After the war retailers
will actually have a difficult time
supplying the initial demands of
their customers. The people will
have great savings accumulated and
power will undoubtedly
exceed the supply of goods avail
able"