"DAZZLE" MONEY FOR SHOPKEEPERS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2989, 29 September 1919, Page 7

"DAZZLE" MONEY FOR SHOPKEEPERS.

A new way of getting money out of the pockets of the foolish and into the coffers of the wise has been invented in the West-end of London. A Daily Chronicle representative who went to watch the process can think of no phrase in which to describe the scenes he witnessed other than “Dazzle Buying.” The thought processes which have produced the new methods seem to run somewhat on these lines: “The war has produced a new class of customer who possesses only one characteristic worthy of our consideration. He or she is wealthy in a way that was almost unknown amongst our older customers. The new people of the kind who are profitable to us have neither taste nor discrimination to recommend them. They do not do our establishment honor by the mere fact that they buy from us. “They have but one standard—the gold standard. The only way they have of knowing if a thing is “right is. by judging from the price. Therefore let us ensure that they will have the ‘right’ things by asking from tliem the heavy prices which will give a cachet to our goods in their eyes.” Perhaps this explanation of an almost incredible state of affairs seems exaggerated to the uninitiated. Very well. Here is the statement, word for word, of the owner of a modest little parlor-shop, not a hundred miles from Bond street, to a customer who protested against being asked twelve guineas for a simple little cotton frock for a debutante daughter : “Why, last year you made me a similar ’dress for £6,” protested the customer, “and materials have certainly not gone up in price since then.” “Well, madame,” replied the dressmaker. “1 have decided not to make any cheap frocks this year. I have found out that if I don’t ask a very good price for my things they don t go. People who are rolling in money say my things tire not good if they are cheap. If they don’t spend a lot they think they haven’t bought the correct thing.” The Daily Chronicle representative asked a woman who sometimes buys tit the shops which attract the most pronounced types of dazzle buyers for her opinion of fly's dressmakers statement. “It is perfectly correct,” she said. “The price seems to me to depend entirely oh the caprice or avarice, whichever you like to call it, of the man who is selling these luxury articles and on the silliness of the people who are buying them.” “Here is an instance. Some of the great dressmakers, you know, will supply all the accessories tor a smart woman’s toilette as well as her clothes. In one such establishment. I saw the other day a string of jade beads of the size and shade I had been looking

for for some time. I asked the price, and was told'£2oo. I left them still ornamenting the wonderful roll of Eastern silk on which they were displayed. The string was sold a day or two later to someone I know for “I myself bought a string which* was precisely as good as the first string, so far as I could tell, and I am something of a judge of jade, for between £SO and £6O. But then the shot) where I bought mine is not haunted by Dazzle Buyers, as you call them. it is only appreciated by people of discrimination, who know what they want and are not inclined to be dazzled by extravagant prices.” The history of that string of jade beads confirmed the Daily Chronicle representative in his theory, and he went further afield for more facts. Furs seemed to offer a likely _ field for investigation. An assistant in an establishment which would certainly not shock prospective customers by asking vulgarly modest prices was very helpful. “No : people are not using their last year’s furs very much,” she said : adding, “at least, I should say, our customers are not. You see, furs must be brown this season. Many of out customers bought wraps of black musquash hist year. Not a dear fur, certainly, but they looked very well. “Russian imperial sable is the most expensive brown fur in the world. We are not very often asked for that, but the last coat we sold cost £3,000. We have sold some chinchilla coats at £1.500 and £2,000, but wc are not likely to sell any more immediately, as furs must be brown.” “But cannot you suggest something for a woman who might stop short at Imperial Russian sable 1” the assistant was asked. Yes. There was just the thing to fit the circumstances of a poor person who could nut afford to spend £3,000 on a coat. “This is squirrel dyed to look like sable. A new process to meet the demand for brown furs.. Longish wraps of this shape are very much used this year over lace and georgette frocks.” Dyed squirrel masquerading as sable. That did not seem a very terrible proposition. Suppose we ask the price. “.£IOO is the price of the wrap. As you will see, it is cut on the new lines, a panel, back, and two wide panel ties in front, leaving a space for the arms. This shape cuts into a great deal of fur, you see.” Yes, the Daily Chronicle repror sentative saw. but still £IOO seemed a price for a dyed squirrel coat which needed a little explaining. Perhaps something in the new dyed rabbit would be more in the line ol what was wanted. Cape wraps of the kind produced had been very successful at Ascot. And the price for the dyed rabbit? That would cost £l5O. The Daily Chronicle representative was shown small skunk tics, about the size and quality for which no more than £2O would have been paid betorc the war. There were now refererd to as bargains at £6O and £7O. “We have already sold _ a great many fur coats this season, said an assistant in another shop when surprise at existing prices was expressed. Before the war a musquash coat which would make the other girls green with envy could be bought for £l3. Now the same quality will cost £SO.