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Show j c Penney President 'Advises Price Reduction ITT solut on or the present in-read in-read mercnants in h out 'the counU-y would forget wha ?hev Said for merchandise now on 'and wouid reprice it to the pub- Should hey would furnish an impetus to e urmg prosperity which would Immediately be felt all over - the Coine of the trouble with general gen-eral business is found in the fact that manufacturers are faced with a lack of orders for the future. Merchants who refuse to hquida'.e present stocks of merchandise by failing to look the price situation squarely in the race, are in no position to place orders for new merchandise. In the J. C. Penney Co., we have attempted to parallel the downward curve in wholesale prices pri-ces with corresponding downward movement in retail prices evei since the present trend set in nearly a year ago. "All merchandise on hand in our stores at the close of 1930 is being repriced on the basis of today's to-day's replacement costs. By following fol-lowing this policy we expect to be able to keep our volume of sales by items of merchandise at a point commensurat with the early months of last year and to maintain main-tain them on a profitable basis. The first two months of 1930 were periods m wmch unusual gains were made. "A study of 101 items, covering white goods, women's dresses in the moderate price brackets, men's clothing, hats, work clotsing and piece goods shows an average price 21.4 percent below that of last year with reductions running up to 30.3 percent in some items of Women's dresses, 35.8 percent in prints, 36 percent in work clothes and 25.3 percent in men's clothing. "Tho trend in merchandise prices pri-ces during the past ten years is shown in such items of common use as sheetings in which one standard stan-dard quality shows a drop from $2.49 eacn in 1920 to .83 each at the present time, with the 1930 price being $1.19 each." |