SHOPS FOR MEN ONLY.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 286, 2 May 1929, Page 1

SHOPS FOR MEN ONLY.

Mere man is at last to be relieved from paying—at least ind.rectly—for the cost of the vagaries of women’s fashions. It is calculated that the price of masculine footwear is 20 per cent higher than it need be, simply be-, cause shoe shops distribute their fashion losses over the whole stock. Men’s boots and shoes show little change in shape or colour from year to year, but those of women vary every spring. It is whispered, for example, that the coming spring will see ladies’ shoes available in 55 different shades. Now one of the biggest firms in Germany of boot and shoe manufacturers has decided to come tc the aid of man. In the coming year it will open up 12 retail branches throughout Berlin which will sell men’s wear, and men’s wear only. In this way it promises to reduce prices by 4s in the £. What it ignores, however, is that ladles’ footwear elsewhere must become correspond ugly more expensive, sot that men, or many of them, must pay in the long run. In these new shops, in accordance with the democratic spirit of the age, the saleswoman will no longer bow the knee before male customers whom they are seeking to fit. The customer will ascend by a couple of steps on to a raised platform, where he will take his seat, and the saleswoman, standing upr.ght, will no longer need to stoo:p before -him at hei task.