Window shopping in Washington DC (1926)
By Mrs Harland H Allen – Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia) December 1, 1926
We have always thought that women were the greatest window shoppers, but a test was made recently, and it was found that men are the predominant sex in window shopping.
It was also proved that men stare longer into any window than women do. The only exception was millinery windows.
Window shopping has its advantages for men as well as for women. Many men and women work in offices during the day, and their only opportunity to shop during the week is at lunch time. After lunch, they may take a walk and while enjoying the relaxation, do some comparative shopping.
Suppose that the window shopper is your husband, and he wants to buy you a pair of gloves, or junior a new coat, or your daughter a cape.
It would take all of his spare time at lunch to look over the display of one store. By walking through the shopping district, he may see all varieties at all prices.
There is another advantage to window shopping for the man. Articles displayed in windows are usually placed on models, or so arranged as to suggest them in use. Men are generally unfamiliar with the requirements of women’s dress or children’s, and the display aids them in making their selection.
Again, many men are not up on fashions. Store windows are always abreast of the styles, and so a man can buy something “like the one in the window” without fear of making a mistake.
This is not only true of lines of clothing, but also of colors, skirt and coat lengths, and other things as well.
Of course, men window-shop for their own apparel. too. Men have definite ideas usually as to the type of clothing they will prefer. Different stores cater to different tastes, though some naturally appeal to many.
A man likes to feel that he can walk into a store and find the sort of apparel that meets his taste. Besides learning this, he also gets an idea as to which stores cater especially to one of his means, and which stores carry the trademarked or branded merchandise that he wants.
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Of course, like every window shopper, he never knows, but some shop window will feature at an advantageous price the very thing he desires or needs.
Window shopping is an economical way to shop from the standpoint of time, and it acquaints one with shops and their stocks.
Anyone with the time to walk at lunch time has the time to window shop, and there is no more profitable way to spend one time while walking. If it is true that men do more of it than women, then women have a lesson to learn from the less experienced shopper.
Federal Clothing Store, 621 7th Steet (c1920)
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