Word: retailing
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Another factor is retail sales, on which there is no comprehensive up-to-date statistic. The most current is the Federal Reserve's weekly index of department-store sales, which shows that sales are on the rise. But since it covers, only 6.7% of all retail sales and does not include many important items, e.g., autos, economists are not sure whether overall spending is still on the rise or has dropped...
...brighter side, department-store sales last week moved 2% ahead of the same week of 1957. The National Retail Merchants Association polled the top men in 2,000 department and chain stores, reported that 72% look for 1958 profits to equal or exceed last year's record. The Commerce Department, in its annual survey of the nation's major industries, found "moderate optimism." Though it conceded that production declines are in store for autos, steel, machine tools and railway cars, it predicted that some of 1957's softer industries will snap back. Said the report: lumbermen should...
...audience of about 3,000,000. "We have so many friends through the country," Shirl explained, "this way they can all be here." The best man called dapper, cutawayed Bernie "a worn-out wolf"; and Shirl, swathed to the neck in a white jersey Murray Hamburger original (retail price: about $275), giggled nervously. "I feel like the most rank amateur that ever got before a camera," she said. A veteran of the Sid Caesar shows. Shirl performed in fact like an old pro, even shed a tear for the close-up lens. Viewers met Shirl's niece...
...industry that almost foundered in the postwar prosperity is the U.S. fur business. In 1946 furriers had nearly $500 million in retail sales. But success attracted thousands of fly-by-nighters who tricked out rabbit, skunk and black Manchurian dog under such misleading names as Arctic seal, Alaska sable and Belgium lynx. As burned buyers learned to fear the fur, the trend to suburban living-with its more casual dress-trimmed the market more. Women also became choosier. Many passed up muskrat, squirrel, and other less expensive furs for good cloth coats-or waited until they could afford mink...
Last week furriers were in the midst of their January sale season and feeling decidedly hopeful. From $290 million in 1956, retail sales climbed back to $315 million in 1957, and many furriers think the market will keep improving. One big reason for the comeback is that women are not so suspicious as they were, thanks in large part to a 1952 federal law requiring truthful labeling. Said Harvey Hannah, chief of the wool and fur division of the Federal Trade Commission: "The act has done a lot to instill consumer confidence. There was a time when...