88 
MARKETING 
pare values.” A man often goes to “my tailor” or “my hat shop”; 
he buys a shirt or a collar at a place convenient to his day’s work 
or because he knows a clerk personally; or a brand becomes fixed 
in his mind and he goes to the store which carries this brand of 
goods. Again, a window display may jog his memory or give 
him the impulse to buy. 
Women, on the other hand, are predominantly shoppers; and, 
it should be noted, women shoppers buy the greater part of all 
textile fabrics sold for household or personal use. It is com 
monly said that a woman visits three stores on the average before 
making a purchase, comparing the three stocks as to quality, price, 
and style. 
Shopping lines include all the more important items of dry 
goods, clothing, and furnishings. Many of them are handled by 
department stores (which cater especially to shoppers), and many 
of the higher-grade articles are found also at specialty shops in the 
shopping centers. In buying these lines a woman does want to 
compare values. And ordinarily she wants the various services 
offered by stores serving the shopping trade: credit, delivery, 
and a liberal policy as to returns and exchanges. 
These statements do not, of course, apply uniformly to all 
classes of consumers or to all sections of the country. Many 
people in small towns and through the countryside visit shopping 
centers but infrequently, if at all, and must patronize mail-order 
houses or country stores. The automobile and improved high 
ways, however, have made shopping readily possible fo the rural 
population. 
SUPPLY 
Textile materials come into the American markets from the 
four corners of the globe. With the important exceptions of 
cotton and artificial silk (rayon) we import a large part of the 
main supply of every textile fiber: half of the wool consumed, all 
of the raw silk and jute, and practically all of the flax. 1 The im 
portance of the international trade and of tariff regulations is quite 
apparent. The price of pure-silk fabrics is sensitive to conditions 
1 Flax is grown in the United States largely for seed rather than for fiber.