Unusual Prices In Many Local Stores Tomorrow

More Than 75 Stores Participating in Event Sponsored by Retail Trade Division of C. of C.

Today, Greenfield's retail establishments issue their county-wide invitation to the gala bargain festival of the year, Dollar day, in which more than 75 local stores will participate all-day tomorrow. The event is sponsored by the retail trade division of the Chamber of Commerce, whose members, more than 50 in number are designated by the official dollar day window seal on their store fronts.

Dollar day, ever a powerful magnet to the thrifty of the county, appears to hold a greater significance than ever this year. Retail business in this community has felt the effect of the general depression which has retarded buying in practically all lines with the result that whole-sale and retail prices in many commodities have been effected in the desperate efforts to reduce superfluous stocks and to bring sales totals to the 1929 figures.

Dollar day, coming at the period of the season when the retailer must unload or carry over merchandise which in another year will be passee, necessitates price sacrificing. Careful perusal of the offerings of the local stores in the advertising columns of yesterday's and today's Daily Recorder will reveal commodity values that are most unusual.

The practice of making up shopping lists from the advertisements is becoming more general. The housewives who would save time and inconvenience will adopt this shopping method tomorrow by checking and comparing the values in wanted merchandise and by inspection of the store windows, which are already displaying the choicest of Dollar day offerings.
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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The economic crisis of the Great Depression caused many businesses to fail and in turn, massive unemployment. By 1933, two years after this article appeared in the Greenfield Daily Recorder, an estimated 25% of the national labor force would be unemployed. These conditions created a vicious cycle of problems. Increased unemployment led to a decline in consumption as unemployed workers had little or no money with which to purchase goods. A decline in consumers' purchasing of goods and services led to further business failure which led, in turn, to further unemployment. Greenfield, Massachusetts, a small industrial city in the north western part of the state, tried a novel tactic to increase retail sales for businesses struggling to unload inventory which remained unsold because of a decline in consumption. Seventy-five stores advertised merchandise for just a dollar in hopes of enticing now thrifty consumers to buy. If consumers purchased goods, it was hoped, this would initiate a virtuous circle of increased demand that could stimulate production and, hence, increase the need for workers.

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