SHOPPING SECRETS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 275, 16 August 1932, Page 4

SHOPPING SECRETS

Interesting Statistics BACON, INK AND HATS Dominion Special Service. (By Mavis.) London, July C. Before a. woman makes up her mind to take a hat she tries on seven others first. But she isn’t any more difficult than a man shopping for a hat.. ; for he tries on seven, too. These are figures of averages compiled by a head of one of the large stores in London, who has a bag full of amusing secrets. For one thing, people buy their ink on Mondays . • probably because home ink supplies are used up in week-end letter-writing. And by the change from fine-point to sturdy pens, shopkeepers know that the style of handwriting has changed in England from an easy right slope to a heavy backhand script. Another thing this salesman knows is when babies are born. More layettes are bought in February, March, and April than in any other month of the year. July is the slackest month for babies, judging by layette sales. The greatest months in a girl’s life are April, May, and’June, for those are the months of proposal. As many engagement rings are sold in those three spring months as in all the rest of the year. Men are becoming thinner and healthier, he says. Why? Because they are not buying trousers with 441 n. waists like they used to do in 1925. A sensational drop in potato consumption is blamed on reducing diets for women by some economists and is echoed by this London store. On the other hand, there is 75 per cent, more bacon sold now than in pre-war days, so someone must be gaining weight.