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Holder Qf The Key
Will t!t: . jneat decline in business continue? Or will it level off? Or .will » new upward surge set in? - To a very great extent! the answers to these and other -such cuestions will be found in the state nf retail trade during the months ahead.
This in effect was what P’.oM-irclm
T. McNair, the (f cHnea’ished Harvard University ri’-horov on rerniTnir. told the re. r„,,r co'vent'pn ,o,c the Nationalt1 e*,ifl Merrhtnts Association. Tn Hr words: “The consumer holds the key not only to the fortunes of •."fftail business in" 1958, but in a larger sense tto the fortunes ,of the
total econor^vN
Th«s view hns become a genpral1>- held one The fv-'-v stress used to be laid unon, nmduction figures Rut consumntion figures ■>it lv important.,and some thm1- th-.r am more imoortanf. *t’« nhv'-Mthat production in an" «lm<- can’r hold no lone unless oeonle buv the
Co rhie volum» of retail rra'de d-Veeffr determines . wh0* "0<*s on ;'n the factories,
Retailers know that comneti-ion w'll he tough this vear. Thev know that consumers are .dome rnore shotting around and "JO™ planning’ before biiving. Fverv merchant will do all he can to offer the most attractive ind*»remerts and t the best buvs oossible And, it is good to report, most re. taft sookesmen seem rresonablv optimistic about the sales nrospectx.
36.6%