A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
2 UTILITY FURNITURE
The purpose of this part of the enquiry was to discover the attitude of housewives in general towards Utility Furniture, and to measure the extent of satisfaction and dissatisfaction of those who had some practical experience with it.
The results are based on two samples: One 1,844 housewives, selected at random from the Rating Lists in various representative towns. These housewives were asked what they knew about Utility Furniture, and what they thought of it.
The other sample of 291 housewives were especially selected at random from applicant lists, at the Board of Trade. (See appendix for details of sample). All of these housewives had either ordered or owned Utility Furniture. In a series of detailed questions they were asked to say what they thought about it, and to indicate their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the quality, design, price, and style of the items they had bought or ordered.
Table 13 below shows the extent of knowledge of Utility Furniture of the sample of 1,844 housewives. 13% of the housewives had inspected it closely. 50% had seen it. 15% had only heard of it. The remainder of the sample knew nothing about it or had never given it a thought. Thus 78% of the housewives who did not own Utility Furniture or had not ordered it, had some knowledge of Utility Furniture or had taken a certain interest in it.
Table 13
Knowledge of Utility Furniture of housewives, who neither own nor have ordered Utility Furniture
| % | |
| Examined it closely | 13 |
| Has only looked at it | 50 |
| Only heard of it | 15 |
| Knows nothing about it | 22 |
| SAMPLE: | 1,844 |
Table 14 relates the extent of knowledge about U.F. to the extent to which it is liked amongst the entire sample of 2,135 housewives. It will be seen that of the 281 housewives who have only heard about U.F. only 20% express any like or dislike for it and that these 20% are fairly evenly divided between liking and disliking, and that amongst those with closer knowledge of it a greater percentage like it.
TABLE 14
OPINION ON UTILITY FURNITURE
From this table it can be said that about two-thirds of the housewives in the whole sample tended to like Utility Furniture.
In order to see whether this general liking would manifest itself in concrete action by choosing Utility, if the housewife needs to buy furniture, housewives who said that they would need to buy certain items either in the near or distant future were asked whether they would choose Utility or some other sort.
The following table shows the results of the answers to this question.
Table 15
Utility Items wanted by those who intend to buy furniture either in the immediate or distant future
A considerable proportion of housewives who had no direct experience with Utility Furniture and who want to buy in the near future, say that they would buy Utility Furniture. Certain pieces of Utility Furniture are more in demand than others, for example, 18 out of 21 of those who want to buy kitchen cabinets would buy Utility, whereas only 50% would choose wardrobes in Utility.
There is of course a possibility than a desire to buy Utility Furniture is prompted more by the fact, that it is difficult to buy other furniture at reasonable prices at the moment, rather than by a definite liking for Utility. Therefore housewives who intend to buy furniture in the distant future, when it can be assumed that other furniture as well will be more available, were asked what they would choose. About 1/3 said that they would like Utility (the proportions for some items are greater than for others).
JUDGEMENT OF THOSE WHO OWN OR HAVE ORDERED U.F.:
An analysis of the two samples by economic group shows that the sample of housewives who own Utility is on the whole poorer than the random sample. This can be seen in the following table.
Table 16
Sample Analysis
| Wage rate of main Wage-Earner | Random Sample | U.F. Sample |
| % | % | |
| Up to £5. 10s. 0d. | 80 | 92 |
| Over £5. 10s. 0d. | 19 | 7 |
| Unclassified | 1 | 1 |
| SAMPLE: | 1,842 | 291 |
Since the Utility sample was taken at random from the list of Board of Trade docket holders it may therefore be assumed that it is the poorer section of the population which has so far experienced Utility Furniture. This might be kept in mind when satisfaction and dissatisfaction is judged. First, Table 17 below shows what proportions of the sample own or have ordered items in Utility. The bed is the article most in demand.
Table 17
Utility Furniture owned or ordered
QUALITY AND FUNCTION :
The next table shows what is thought about the quality and function of U.F. by those who have had experience with it.
Satisfaction and dissatisfaction with quality and function of Utility Furniture
Answers were not available in some cases.
Slightly over one half of the sample are completely satisfied, as far as beds are concerned. The degree of satisfaction differs for different items, for example:- people are less satisfied with beds than they are with chairs, A larger proportion would definitely be more satisfied if the polish and finish of the articles were better. This is expressed particularly by owners of baby furniture, wardrobes, and dining tables.
As for the functional aspects of the articles, e. g. the width of beds, depth of drawers etc., about two thirds of the sample find them satisfactory.
PRICE :
The following table shows the proportions who are satisfied or dissatisfied with the price.
SATISFACTION WITH POINTS:
Housewives were asked whether they were satisfied with the number of points they received from the Board of Trade. Table 20, below analyses this showing that one half of those with an opinion considered the amount insufficient.
Table 20
Satisfaction or dissatisfaction with No. of Points received
| % | |
| Sufficient | 43 |
| Insufficient | 40 |
| No opinion | 17 |
| SAMPLE: Housewives who own or ordered U.F. | 291 |
DESIGN: To what extent the style and design of Utility Furniture met with satisfaction can be seen in the following table.
Table 21
Appeal of Utility Furniture Design
| % | |
| Likes it | 51 |
| Likes it with reservation | 9 |
| Likes certain specifications but dislikes others | 7 |
| Dislikes it | 16 |
| No definite judgment | 16 |
| SAMPLE: Housewives who own or have ordered U.F. | 291 |
Half of the housewives like it without reservation, and only 16% have an unqualified dislike for it.
In table 24, it will be seen that housewives in the lower income group like the modern styles less than those in the higher income group. The owners of U.F. were to a large extent from the poorer income groups, but the majority liked the U.F. design.
TASTE IN FURNITURE :
The Council of Industrial Design wished to gauge the public’s taste in furniture. For this an experiment was designed by which informants were given 4 photographs of bedroom furniture, (see appendix 3) and were asked to choose which of the furniture designs illustrated they liked best, and if possible to give reasons for their choice. Photograph 1, is plain and fairly modern. Photograph 2, is the most old fashioned of the four, and photographs 3 and 4 are extremely modern. It should be remembered that the basis on which one photograph is called modern, and another old-fashioned is purely arbitrary. However, to treat the material significantly it was necessary to compare the photographs and determine the most old fashioned of the three.
One more point should be kept in mind when evaluating the results; the photographs are not quite comparable. Photograph 2, was dark oak, the other photographs showed furniture in light wood, photograph 3, was the only one with an easy chair and a bed.
In spite of these shortcomings the results of the experiment, presented in the following tables, shows such a clear trend, that they can be taken as an indication of the direction in which tastes move.
The results of preferences are shown in the following table in which the frequency of choice is separated for the Random Sample and for the U.F. Sample.
Table 22
Frequency of preference of the 4 Photographs
Within the Random Sample apparently 44% prefer style 2, whereas, little more than a quarter prefer style 1. Styles 3 and 4 were each preferred by about 13% of the sample.
In the U.F. sample the preferences are different in so far as styles 1 and 2 are each liked best by about a third of the sample. In the U.F. sample the proportion who prefer style 1 is greater than the proportion in the general sample who prefer style 1. Likewise a smaller proportion prefer style 2.
It was said before that the photographs were not quite comparable. The colour of wood was different in one photograph, and the number of furniture items shown on each photograph varied. In order to see whether and how far these factors influenced choice, the housewives were asked to give reasons for their choice. The next table gives the reasons for the choice of one or another of the photographs in so far as housewives were able to make a decision.
Table 23
Factors influencing the choice of photograph (Housewife could mention more than one factor)
The difference between the random sample in this section and the random sample in the foregoing sections is due to the fact that only 1725 housewives of the original 1844 answered the questions on style.
Photographs 1, 2 and 3 were chosen mostly for the style of the furniture and photograph 4 mostly for good hanging space. 25% of those who chose photograph 2 did so because of the colour of the furniture.
An analysis by economic group shows that the upper economic group tend towards modernity rather more than the lower economic groups.
Table 24
Wage rate of main wage earner
The following table shows the results analysed by age groups. There seems to be some tendency for the younger age groups to like modern furniture more than the older age groups.
Table 25
Age of housewife
Another indication of the tendency towards a preference in modern furniture is given by the analysis of yet another question included in the schedule. The question dealt with a choice of different types of beds. This article was picked since it was felt that more than any other article in a bedroom suite, it reflects changes in style. The question asked whether the housewife preferred a bed with low ends (modern), one with high ends (old-fashioned), or a divan bed. Tables 26 and 27 show the preferences analysed by age and economic groups.
Table 26
Frequency of preference for beds with high or low ends
Analysed by Age of Housewife
| Preference | Up to 34 | Over 34 |
| % | % | |
| Bedstead with low ends | 69 | 53 |
| Bedstead with high ends | 19 | 39 |
| Divan beds | 9 | 5 |
| No opinion | 3 | 3 |
| Random Sample plus U.F. Sample | 565 | 1445 (8 not classified) |
Table 27
Frequency of preference for beds with high or low ends
Analysed by Wage Rate of chief wage earner
| Preference | Up to £5. 10s. | Over £5. 10s. |
| % | % | |
| Bedstead with low ends | 57 | 64 |
| Bedstead with high ends | 35 | 23 |
| Divan beds | 5 | 9 |
| No opinion | 3 | 4 |
| Random Sample: plus U.F. Sample | 1653 | 343 (22 not classified) |
The majority in both age groups and both economic groups prefer the modern to the old-fashioned type. The table also shows that higher proportions of the younger age group and of the upper income group prefer the modern. It can be seen here as well that a larger proportion chose the modern bed than chose photographs 1, 3, and 4. e. g., 19% of the under 34 age-group chose the old-fashioned bed, whereas 30% of the same age group chose photograph 2. Again 39% of the over 35 age
-group chose the old-fashioned bed and 49% of the same group chose photograph 2.
Summary
Summing up the experience of housewives who own or have ordered U.F. it is clear from Table 18 that with most of the items of furniture between about ½ and 2/3 express unqualified satisfaction and about 2/3 of the housewives consider it well designed for its functional purpose.
A modern style of furniture is preferred by a majority of housewives and this preference is rather more marked amongst the younger housewives.
The price is satisfactory.
A further indication of satisfaction with U.F. is the proportion of housewives who wished for a higher point allocation than the Board of Trade was able to grant to them.