SOFTGOODS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 36, 12 February 1931, Page 16

SOFTGOODS

TRADE PROBLEMS

\ FACING SOLUTION

"Evening Post," 12th February, The modern drapery or softgoods store no longer confines its activities to the sale of products of the loom, workroom, or '•'atelier"—as it has'been called. In the large stores o£ New Zealand to-day there are many departments that have little or nothing at all to do with the clothing and adornment of either sex. The business of restaurateurs is now generally added, and there are hairdressing, radio, photography, book, perfumery, and drug departments, and provision is made in some cases for miniature golf. The proportion of business done and its relative importance in the aggregate returns in necessaries and luxuries or semi-luxuries, is best known to the heads. But it will be obvious to the public that there must be some sections of a large soft goods enterprise more sensitive than others to reduced spending power of the public. If the public mind is unsettled by the trend of economic events the fact will at once be reflected in the returns from certain departments. . On the other hand, if the public mind is generally easy as to its present and future .income all departments will show it, although returns may sharply fluctuate from day to day. Selling skill is always necessary, but never more so than now, and especially in the large drapery store, with its large staffs. ; Its great stocks and varieties of goods and the caprices of feminine fashion (which are beyond the power of man to control or anticipate) increase its difficulties in a time of economic disturbance. The <lrapery trade as now conducted on the big store principle is a fairly safe indicator of the proseprity or otherwise of a locality. But from new construction work undertaken and contemplated in New Zealand it is, to be inferred that the trade faces the future in a spirit of sober optimism which c-ould well be emulated by the public at large. It is confronted by many problems, Tnit is unappalled by them. For instance, 'the "New Zealand Draper" appreciates the complications arising out of the uncertainty of exchange. It admits the difficulty of the problem of indents for spring and summer. With exchange in such an ■uncertain state the drapers' worries are intensified, but the trade organ holds that common-sense will indicate a way out of tfhis difficulty also. It advises: "Review and exploit as never before the possibilities of your own organisation in the manufacture of apparel. Arid in your buying from overseas, comb the markets for goods that are most likely to find a ready sale in this country, preferably well-known British products. It is ug to the New Zealand manufacturer to take advantage of the opportunity *hat the exchange rate «nd other circumstances have brought his ;fvay, and no doubt he will make the most k'lof 'it."