HAND -TO-MOUTH BUYING: - Its Causes and Its Effects This subject discussed by some of the lead ing business men of the country, railroad executives and economists in the following pages is of such interest and importance at the present time as would seem to warrant a more or less detailed exposition of their views. VIEWS OF DEPARTMENT STORE EXECUTIVES “Hand-to-mouth™ or current buying, which has now been so universally adopted, has been attributed to a variety of causes. Mr. Jesse I. StrAUS, President of R. H. Macy and Company, believes that deep-seated and social changes are responsible for the evolu tion of this policy and that to understand it fully one must see it in its historical perspec tive. Mr. Straus, in a carefully prepared memorandum on this subject, says: “For many years prior to the war progressive re- tail distributors were carefully studying the problem of securing more rapid turnover of stocks and reduc- tion of the losses caused by price and style deprecia- tion of their inventories. While industrial effort was peing concentrated upon the perfection of mass pro- duction methods and Taylor and his followers were spreading the principles of scientific management, there was a similar movement under way in dis tribution to find more scientific principles of opera- tion. But the emphasis of the times was almost wholly upon improvement of production and to that field and the old established professions went the great majority of the young and trained minds of our schools and colleges. Marketing received scant attention in our educational system. Business did not demand it. Distribution of the then exist- ing volume of production was not a pressing eco- nomic problem. With a few notable exceptions, the scientific analysis of distribution languished. . . . CHANGES IN CHARACTER OF CoNsSUMER DEMAND “Within the past two decades, and particularly in more recent years, profound changes in the charac- rer of consumer demand have swept the country. The automobile has removed the isolation of sub arban and rural life. Fashion magazines, periodicals and newspapers of all kinds with up-to-the-minute tyle news find their way into the remotest homes. The movies flash daily and nightly the latest modes ind fashions before the formerly untutored millions. [here is a new appreciation of the beautiful, the chic’ and the ‘smart.’ This changed consumer de- nand manifests itself all along the line, from home wrchitecture and furnishings to clothing and even ‘ood. There is the ever-present paradox of wanting ‘hat which is different from, and yet similar to, what sthers have. Consumet demand is fickle and is seing constantly cast into new molds. There is no Jumping ground in isolated communities for the tyle mistakes of today. The number of staples in con- sumption goods has grown rapidly less. They find | narrowing market with an informed population. “Consumer demand has become peculiarly indi- sidualistic and mass production of consumers’ goods ‘aces new problems. The automobile industry is no onger concerned merely with the problem of pro- fucing a car which will ‘take you there and bring rou back’; it seeks new customers with an unprece- Jented competition of engine, chassis and body re- inements. Steel is not just steel, but is fabricated to neet the specifications of the consumer. "Apartment Iwellings are no longer mere crude boxes of masonry ind steel; but they are crowded with refinements ind comforts to meet the whims and desires of the enant with money to pay. This changed consumer femand is backed by a material well-being without varallel in history. The consuming public is willing 0 pay him who satisfies its caprices within the imits of its cash or credit paying power. It does 10t reckon the social cost of ceaseless change and >xperimentation. “The producer is exploiting this fertile soil by sew methods. Not only has he deluged the buying sublic with a vast range of refinements in his sroduct to secure new sales for his excess capacity, sut he has also largely sponsored installment buying -0 widen his market. That such policies tend ulti- nately to restrict buying power I have no doubt, sut with that I am not here concerned. New mar- tets are also sought by great campaigns of advertis