Lumbcr Merchants Urged to Study Public's Buying Habits to Increase Their Own Sales

Bv HAROLD KNAPP General Sales Manager, The Celotex Company

If I were a retail lurnber merchant-as I once was-I would take a day off this week and spend it visiting the other merchants in my town. I would call upon the manager of the leading department store; I rvould have a heartto-heart talk with the leading druggist, with the most successful hardrvare merchant and with the manager of the biggest radio shop. From these men I would learn what kind of dresses women are buying this month; the quality men are demanding in suits, shirts, and shoes; the brands of tooth pastes being purchased, and the sizes and makis of radios that are sellirig the best. In short, I would study the trend of the public's buying habits, and upon what I discovered I would base my sales Dlans for the next six months.

Such a study of buying habits is a foundation of successful modern merchandising. These habits swing in wide arcs during the course of even a few years, and the merchant that fails to base his sales plans upon them is certain to suffer.

For example, there is today a strong trend awav frorrr the buying habits of the last three years. From ever)' state, from nearly every industry, from retailers and from manufacturers come reports that the public at last is revolting against cheap, shoddy merchanclise offered at so-calle<l bargain prices.

"The public is fed up on hash and trash," declares the vice-president of one big organization. "Tl-rose stores which insist on quality and are alert and aggressive rvill do better than those which believe price to be all important. Thr public buys with an eye to quality.

An association of manufacturers of a necessity advises retailers: "The merchant who doesn't realize that price has been parodied until its punch is exhausted has only to balan'ce his books and look about him. The prospective customer's eyelids do not even flutter when the price cards are shifted to reveal further reductions. Having played the drama of price to an anti-climax the next move must necessarily be in the direction of quality-quality at a consistent pri'ce."

An executive of another big retail store agrees: "Price ! Price ! Price ! America is sold on the fact that prices are low. Pmple don't buy prices, they buy mer,chandise. There is money to be spent but people want better things. Nothing shoddy ever sold more than once."

P. A. O'Connell, president of the National Dry Goods Association, adds this thought: "Consumers today cannot afford to buy poor merchandise, because it does not give service. Those manufacturers u,ho have sacrificed quality for price will soon find that people do not want their goods at any pri,ce, nor will they again trust the retailer who sold them such merchandise."

Writing in a recent issue of Advertising and Selling, a woman declares: "Frankly, I am sick and tired of CHEAP goods . The stores are so full of trash that the woman u'ho wants lasting value wisely refrains from purchasing Women who could buy have placed a virtual boycott on cheap merchandise . The manufacturer is substituting, duplicating, reproducing . until high quality, originality and individuality are only words. When rvill they begin to realize r-e 'won't take cheap stuff ?"

Further proof of this widespread revolt is given in the action of the heads of two great drug store chains, both noted for the low prices on their merchandise. These two mammoth retailers are a.ctually moving to stabilize prices by having manufacturers fix rigicl minimnnr retail prices on their products.

The revolt against low prices and cheap merchandise is the natural result of three years of ballyhoo about bargains, many of which \\'ere unreal. As the result of being cheated and bamboozled, the American public has become afraid to buy. Brrt when forcetl to clo so, the pul>lic shies au,ay from all things smacking of bargains and turns to those staple, well-known brands of .merchandise that represent an unchanging standard of value. Buyers are refusing to accept substittttes for well-known, established products. They have been disappointed too many times after pnrchasing bargains retailers insisted were "just as goocl."

'l'his growing demand for genuine quality, of course, appeared first in those industries where purchases are frequent and frauds are more quickly discovered. However, reports indicate the trend is rapidly spreading to all fields. Therefore, wise retail lumber merchants should be wary of substituting unknown or little known building materials for those with which the public has long been acquainted through actual use and through consistent national advertising. The revolt against cheap substitutes and the return to known quality will make well advertised brands of building materials lletter sellers and profit producers than ever before.

I suggest that every retail lumber merchant prove to himself that the buying trend today is leading back to solid quality by talking with the other merchants in his community. Those making real profits will tell him quality merchandise is best.