General Store, U.S., Prop.

The browbeaten War Assets Administration was tired of being told that it didn't sell surpluses fast enough and use efficient department-store methods. Last week WAA tried an experiment aimed to answer these criticisms.

In an empty airplane hangar in New Orleans, WAA opened its own department store to sell to veterans only. Instead of the usual red tape (some 28 steps from original application to final sale), veterans who came to buy had only to show proof of discharge.

Over 4,000 customer-veterans jammed the store on opening day. Many brought their wives and mothers along. They found choice items: electric fans for $8.40; soap powder for 4-c- a pound; bedspreads, 67-c- each; cigaret lighters, 17-c- men's white shirts for less than $2. First day's sales: $35,000.

But WAA found out enough to doubt that the department-store system would work on a national scale.* For one thing, personnel costs might leave the Government little net return (in New Orleans the 230 clerks were unpaid volunteers). And the elimination of red tape made it too easy for nonveterans to get surpluses by borrowing a set of discharge papers.

*WAA's overall program for getting rid of most of the estimated $30 billion in surpluses by next June includes a $545 million budget--$16 million for advertising alone.

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