HARRY L. HOPKINS, SECRETARY ALEXANDER V. DYE, DIRECTOR N. H. ENGLE, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR 1938 Retail Sales 12 Percent Below 1937. Public Relations Committee a New Management Technique........ Relations Between Business and the Public.. Nat'l Bureau of Standards Conserves the Nation's Energy Supplies... Relationship Between Type of House Heating Equipment and Kind of Fuel Used... Latest Releases of the Bureau of the Census.... Releases in "1938 Rate Series" By Federal Power Commission.. Excerpts From the 1938 Annual Report of the Secretary of Agriculture Excerpt From Secretary Ickes' Report as Public Works Administrator.. Personal Care Expenses in Four Northwestern Cities. Sales Managers' Association of Philadelphia Announces Annual Competition. Nat'l Association of Better Business Bureaus Sponsors Conference on Advertising. Trade Agreement Between the United States and the United Kingdom.. Study of Farmer Expenditures Finds Telephone Rates Higher Than Pre-War..... Retail Sales of Independent Stores, By Population Groups and Kinds of Business.......... Relationship Between Type of House-Heating Equipment and Kind of Fuel.. Shippers' Advisory Boards Estimate Freight Car Loadings... Average Expenditures of Families for Personal Services, etc... Standards of Living in Four Southern Appalachian Mountain Counties. Retail Sales of Independent Stores, November 1938, by Population Groups... Retail Sales of Independent Stores, November 1938, By Kinds of Business.... PUBLISHED ON THE 10th, 20th, and 30th OF EACH MONTH $1.00 per year (Foreign $2.00) in advance. 5 cents a copy. 1938 RETAIL SALES 12 PERCENT BELOW 1937 Total retail sales in 1938 amounted to $35,300,000,000, a decline of about 12 percent from the 1937 volume of $39,900,000,000 according to preliminary estimates of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce made public on January 9 by Harry L. Hopkins, Secretary of Commerce. Final estimates will be issued as soon as year-end information is complete.* The year 1938 was the first since 1933 during which the total dollar volume fell below the previous year's level. During the four preceding years there was a continuous expansion from the depression low of $25,000,000,000 recorded in 1933 to $39,900,000,000 in 1937 when sales were higher than at any time since 1930 and were within 18 percent of the 1929 total of $49,000,000,000. The actual quantity of goods sold during 1938 more closely approximated the 1937 volume than did the dollar value, since the general retail price level for the year averaged below that of 1937. Sales in 1938 were below the 1937 level for all major business groups. However, only two out of fifteen groups sustained losses greater than the average decline recorded for total trade. The automotive group, which accounted for about 11 percent of all sales made during the year, showed a 35 percent loss and furniture and household appliances 17 percent. After one of the worst slumps in automobile history, in which new passenger car sales fell off almost 50 percent during the first nine months of 1938 from the comparable period of 1937, the demand for new cars during the last quarter advanced automobile sales decidedly for the final months of the year. The pronounced gain over the last quarter of 1937, however, was due in part to the downward plunge experienced in sales during the latter part of 1937 rather than entirely to the rise in 1938. Lumber and building materials decreased about 11 percent during 1938, as did sales of jewelry stores and farmers supply and general stores; sales of department, dry goods and general merchandise stores averaged a decline of about 8 percent, with the relative decline being somewhat less for department stores alone; apparel shops were off 9 percent. Food sales, which do not record wide fluctuations of change, decreased 5 percent in dollar value; however, the substantial reduction in food costs during 1938 indicates that the physical volume of food sold about equaled that of 1937. Drug stores, filling stations, variety, and beer and liquor stores all recorded declines of less than 5 percent. Of each dollar spent in retail establishments in 1938 more than one-third went for food and beverages; about one-fourth for general merchandise and apparel; less than one-fifth for automobiles, auto accessories and gasoline; and the remainder for other goods sold. See the table on the following page. * Estimates of retail sales in 1938 will be published in DOMESTIC COMMERCE as soon as final data are available. These estimates are compiled annually by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and are presented in this preliminary form in order to furnish a figure for retail sales, for the entire country, and by kinds of business, as soon as possible after the close of the calendar year. The final estimates, while they will probably not differ very appreciably from those presented above, will have been subject to various checks and counterchecks made possible by reference to data which do not come to hand until after the final reports for retail sales are in for the month of December. 113 ESTIMATED RETAIL SALES, 1938 Note: All dollar figures for 1938 and computations made therefrom are preliminary estimates and subject to revision later this year. /1 Estimates for 1938 are preliminary, see headnote; 1937 estimates are final. 113 |