STATE OF BUSINESS: Merry

For U.S. merchants, it looked as if 1952’s Christmas business would be the merriest in history. Many were already reporting a 5% to 10% sales increase over last year. Sales were so brisk and extra help so scarce that merchants all over the U.S. were using tempting lures (bonuses and shopping discounts) to recruit housewives and high school girls. There were reasons for the optimism. For the first ten months of this year personal income hit a new record rate of $266 billion, 5½% ahead of last year. Manufacturers had $75.4 billion in unfilled orders, $10 billion more than a year ago, and their October sales ($26.2 billion) were the highest in history.