Militant Macy's

Manhattan's R.H. Macy & Co. last week cut the prices on toasters and 28 other small appliances (mixers, irons, broilers, etc.) an average of 23%. By doing so, the world's largest department store boldly hotted up the fire in its long cold war against Fair Trade laws (TIME, Nov. 15, 1948). Macy's previous efforts to sell merchandise below fixed prices had landed it in court on such Fair Trade charges as price-cutting Doubleday books and offering "Mallinson's pure silk pussy willow dresses" at $8.94 instead of $12.95. Macy's had won on the dresses and this time the Fair Traders might find it just as hard to curb the world's largest department store.

It had started price-cutting presumably to compete with more than 200 New York "discount houses" which had grown fat getting around Fair Trade laws. The discount houses issue "buyer's club membership" cards entitling customers to discounts averaging about 20% on Fair Traded items.

When manufacturers, who are required to police their own outlets, continued to wink at such price cuts, Macy's went to war. Gimbels, Wanamaker's and Brooklyn's Abraham & Straus had little choice but to cut also.

While most big manufacturers wondered what to do, Proctor Electric Co., whose toaster had been cut from $22.50 to $17.47, announced a full-scale legal assault to plug discount-house breaches. Then it modified its stand, possibly because discount houses sell a great deal of merchandise. It contented itself with sending letters to its major New York retailers, department stores included, requesting a signed pledge to sell only at listed prices.

Retailers throughout the country watched to see if the price warfare would extend to TV sets, refrigerators and other big items. If it did--and the big stores got away with it--then the Fair Traders were in for plenty of trouble.

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