Storm Over Palm Beach

Though the summer's first heat wave helped the sales of Goodall Co.'s famed lightweight Palm Beach suits, it left Goodall's President Elmer L. Ward cold as a haddock. To clear the decks for a new, improved suit this fall, he decided to slash his "fair-trade" (i.e., fixed) prices by 29%, from $27.50 to $19.75.

Goodall's dealers would get a new wholesale price of $12, but they had paid $17 each for the suits they had on hand. President Ward gave them ten days to clear out their old stocks at the old prices. But one retailer made the mistake of letting the apparel trade's Daily News Record in on the secret. News services spotted the trade-paper item and spread the good news to bargain-hungry U.S. consumers. Result: Goodall's retailers could no longer find anyone foolish enough to pay $27.50 for a Palm Beach, had to put the new low price into effect right away at little more than they paid for them.

Hopping mad, the National Retail Dry Goods Association, instead of blaming the retailer who blabbed, last week gave Goodall a tongue-lashing: "A black eye for . . . fair-trade . . . A policy error of the first magnitude . . ." Goodall, said an association spokesman, ought to rebate the profits every retailer lost on the premature sales. Whoever was right, the shopper was getting the benefits; last week in Manhattan Gimbels offered men's tropical rayons at $17.88.

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