SILK STOCKINGS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 48, 6 December 1940, Page 7

SILK STOCKINGS

RUSH TO BUY IJI AUCKLAND

ANTICIPATION OF A SHORTAGE

(Per Press Association). AUCKLAND, December 5. “Just send) Mr Nash to me, and I’ll tell him what I think of him,” declared a harassed assistant at the women’s .hosiery counter of a large store after one of the busiest days on record after the statement in the House of Representatives on, Wednesday by the. Minister for Customs (the Hon. W. Nash) on the shortage of silk stockings. Far from heeding Mr Nash’s advice to buy fewer silk stockings, and wear fine woollen ones instead, women, in Auckland besieged the hosiery counters at all stores from early morning. When tine shops closed many had sold out of numerous lines. “We are always frantically busy at this,time of the year,” an assistant in one shop said, “but as this morning drew on buying became phenomenal. Women were buying, not one or two pairs, but half a dozen, a. dozen, or moue. Already we have not a full range in most lines, and we have none at all in. some sizes. Toward the end of this afternoop customers were not worrying about gradations of colour, but were taking anything they could get.” 1 In another large store it was stated that at to-day’s rate of buying there would be no silk stockings left by closing time to-morrow. Many lines were already sold out. . “Ever since 10 to 9 this morning people have been queueing up, and there has been no lull since,” an assistant said at a third store. A limit of two pairs for each customer was imposed,. Even so, it. was stated that the shelves would be/empty by Christmas at the present rate, while cheaper lines would be sold out long before then,.

Panic buying was deprecated by the head of a large department store. “The statement in the House has created an unusual demand which, in the opinion of traders, is a pity,” he said. “From the figures quoted in parliament it is apparent that there is a, shortage, but there are; reasonable stocks for reasonable buying.”