1942: Men's Apparel Industry

Effect of the War.

Fulfilling its highly essential part in a war economy, the men's apparel industry since Pearl Harbor has neither suffered the deprivations meted out to the hard goods group nor enjoyed the privileges of the more vital defense industries. Roughly, the retail branch of the industry lost a fourth of its trade to the armed forces. This is not surprising when we consider the tremendous effort made during the past decade to create dress consciousness among younger men. Most of those men are now in uniform.

Yet this trend does not necessarily represent a comparable loss of volume. Most apparel merchants agree that a large part of it has been made up through the increased purchasing of dress apparel by industrial workers; through a sharp increase in the demand for work clothing; through a strengthening of the demand for women's tailored apparel; through the sale of numerous gifts for men in the service.

The war has brought a more favorable balance of trade to some industries than to others. A recent survey made by the National Association of Retail Clothiers and Furnishers would indicate that approximately 12 per cent of the member stores are located in army camp areas; 14 per cent in civilian industrial (non-defense) areas; 28 per cent in defense plant areas; 38 per cent in farm areas; 8 per cent in other types of areas. This is probably typical of the industry as a whole and it can be readily seen how directly the type of locality can affect the nature and volume of apparel sales.

Few industries have been so widely influenced by the war as the men's apparel group. With an unprecedented withdrawal of wool from the domestic market by the army, the need for conservation has brought sharp curtailments and substitute fabrics. That has probably been the most significant single factor.

The control of retail credit by the Government has had a tremendous influence in an industry that was learning to count more and more upon the partial payment plan and long-term credits. Now that the reins have been tightened on thirty-day charges, with complete payment due by the tenth of the second month following the date of purchase, the thirty-day account is used less and the various payment plans and lay-away plans are employed more.

There were those who feared that the war economy would mean the end of style in the men's apparel industry. Actually this has not been the case, for the would style denotes change and there has been plenty of that during the past twelve months, even though most of it was effected by Government decree. The greatest opposition came from the public with the passing of trouser cuffs, a superfluous detail that many men held to as tenaciously as life itself.

Though heavy advance buying of apparel both by the retailer and the public has tended to delay radical style departures, such forced changes as beltless coats, the passing of double-breasted suits with vests, trousers without pleats, shorter jackets, and less 'sweep' in overcoats and topcoats will tend to make the older garments decidedly outmoded in a short time.

Shortages in other major industries are having an immediate influence on the men's apparel field. The withdrawal of steel for civilian use means fewer zippers and more buttons. The rubber shortage means less elastic in garters and suspenders; fewer elastic waistbands and less rubber-topped hose. Silk disappears in men's wear as it does in women's. Nylon, a newcomer in the field, practically goes out of circulation. A shortage of fuel brings a demand for more long underwear; more wool. Gasoline rationing means heavier outer apparel.

As the war progresses the average men's apparel merchant finds himself working harder for a narrower margin of profit. With his younger salesmen going off to war and the older men seeking defense jobs he finds himself in a tight labor squeeze. His overhead rises while 'ceiling prices' limit income and in many instances he is also the victim of an economic squeeze.

All of this has tended to limit the amount of service the average store is able to extend to its customers and the 'services' regulation recently issued by the OPA was not unwelcome. Special services once gave the exclusive men's apparel store an edge over price competition, but faced with a battle for his very existence, the merchant feels he can drop some of these services for the duration without seriously endangering his future.

Price Ceilings.

Price ceilings brought many a headache to the industry. Some of these were controlled by revisions that corrected obvious inequalities; others were more serious. The rules that were set up to control prices in the North would not work when applied to the South where different climates are responsible for entirely different buying habits. It was also true that March prices provided an adequate standard only for many items that were seldom if ever offered to the public during this winter month. Most unfair in the OPA strategy appeared to be the penalty inflicted on the merchant who, in compliance with the Government request, had increased his prices only when forced to by increased replacement costs. This merchant found his March prices less attractive than the merchant who had pushed his prices up with every market change.

Sales of the Year.

The year 1941 was a heavy buying year; on the whole a good volume year for the men's apparel merchant, it closed with a flourish and paved the way for the industry's first war year. A considerable amount of unseasonable buying was practised by the public during the first month of 1942, a practice that was retarded slightly in February. The average improvement for January over the same month a year previous was better than 50 per cent, a record that can be attributed of course to public fears of consumer goods shortages.

During the month of March most men's apparel merchants had more business than they could handle or wanted. In many parts of the country they actually joined in cooperative campaigns to curb panic buying following the Government's first wool decree. Much of this buying was caused by scare newspaper and radio publicity about wool shortages, cuffless trousers, etc.

Regular summer sales were abandoned by most stores as volume during the middle of the year continued to climb and merchandise was not too plentiful. In May the stores reported that for the first half of 1942 unit sales were running behind; dollar volume ahead. And for the first time during the year a sharp decline in sales was recorded. Volume revived in June with substantial Father's Day trade recorded by most stores. July showed more trade declines than improvements but in August the trend started upward again, and continued into September and October.

While business was in no way spectacular during the tail-end of the year it was substantially better than most merchants had predicted or hoped for and was improved by an early Christmas buying trend that helped spread volume so that it could be handled without too much pressure on limited personnel.