A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46

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THE ARTICLES BOUGHT ON CREDIT

Question 2 . Which articles do you buy on credit?

No. %
Clothes, adult 699 60.4
Clothes, children 530 45.8
Layette 26 2.2
Shoes, adult 430 28.5
Shoes, children 367 31.7
Hard Furniture 252 21.8
Soft Furniture 162 14.0
Household linen 201 17.4
Stoves 78 6.7
Electrical and Gas Apparatus 41 3.5
Wireless 43 3.7
Others Perambulators, bicycles, jewellery, boots, children’s toys, etc.) 81 7.1

For buying children’s and adults' clothes credit systems are more used than for any other article. More than a quarter use it for buying adults' and children’s shoes. Furniture, hard, soft and household linen also bought to quite a considerable extent. Credit buying for all other articles is not very important.

Class differences

CLASS C CLASS D
No. % No. %
Clothes, adult 246 52.2 ± 4.5 447 66.7 ± 3.6
Clothes, children 198 42.0 ± 4.5 327 48.8 ± 3.9
Shoes, adult 151 32.1 ± 4.3 275 41.0 ± 3.8
Shoes, children 130 27.6 ± 4.1 234 34.9 ± 3.7
Hard Furniture 103 21.9 ± 3.8 144 21.5 ± 3.2
Soft Furniture 71 15.1 ± 3.3 87 13.0 ± 2.6
Household linen 92 19.5 ± 3.7 106 15.8 ± 2.8
Sample 471 670

Class D buys more adult clothes and shoes on credit than class C. In the buying of children's clothes statistically no significant class difference could be found, though a trend exists which indicates that class D buys more children's clothes on credit than the C group, the opposite trend can be observed for the two furniture groups and household linen.

No. of children under 14

No. of children under 14 1-2 children under 14 3-8 children under 14
No. % No. % No. %
Clothes, adult 271 62.2 ± 4.6 288 57.9 ± 4.4 132 59.2 ± 6.6
Clothes, children 49 11.2 ± 3.0 300 60.3 ± 4.4 177 79.4 ± 5.5
Shoes, adult 148 33.9 ± 4.5 182 36.6 ± 4.3 96 43.0 ± 6.6
Shoes, children 32 7.3 ± 2.4 203 40.8 ± 4.4 128 57.4 ± 6.6
Hard furniture 74 17.0 ± 3.6 112 22.5 ± 3.8 61 27.4 ± 6.0
Soft furniture 68 15.6 ± 8.5 65 13.1 ± 3.0 27 12.1 ± 4.3
Household linen 82 18.8 ± 3.8 85 17.1 ± 3.4 33 14.8 ± 4.8
SAMPLE 436 497 223

The bigger the family, the more children's clothes and shoes are bought on credit.

Age difference

20 - 30 31 - 50 Over 50
No. % No. % No. %
Clothes, adult 111 44.8 ± 6.3 392 61.4 ± 3.9 171 70.7 ± 5.8
Clothes, children 123 49.6 ± 6.4 352 55.2 ± 3.9 40 16.5 ± 4.8
Shoes, adult 63 25.4 ± 5.5 254 39.8 ± 3.9 96 39.7 ± 6.3
Shoes, children 77 31.0 ± 5.9 247 38.7 ± 3.9 30 12.4 ± 4.2
Hard furniture 72 29.0 ± 5.8 132 20.7 ± 3.2 36 14.9 ± 4.6
Soft furniture 34 13.7 ± 4.4 91 14.3 ± 2.8 30 12.4 ± 4.2
Household linen 44 17.7 ± 4.9 105 16.5 ± 3.0 47 19.4 ± 5.0
SAMPLE 248 638 242

The over 50’s most frequently buy clothes and shoes on credit, this is not astounding if it is borne in mind that this age group includes the old age pensioners.

Hard furniture is bought more often by the people in the first age group.

Urban and Rural differences

URBAN RURAL
No. % No. %
Clothes, adults' 584 23.2 92 19.8
Clothes, children's 432 17.2 73 15.7
Shoes, adult 369 14.7 46 9.9
Hard furniture 220 8.8 19 4.1
Soft furniture 138 5.5 15 3.2
Household linen 159 6.3 35 7.5
Wireless 39 1.6 2 0.4
Stoves 73 2.9 2 0.4
Electrical and Gas Apparatus 37 1.5 1 0.2
Others Layettes, children's toys, boots, jewellery etc. 93 3.7 8 1.7

On the whole less articles are bought on credit in rural areas, but the difference is most marked in the group of articles which included, wireless, gas and electrical apparatus and others.

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