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
