Page:Adventures in Thrift (1916).djvu/240

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of others, plainly cut off the bolts we saw later in the regular department, and priced higher than they could be bought at the counter, by the yard."

"Isn't that universally true," asked Mr. Norton, "that merchants cut off unsalable stuff and offer it as 'remnants' when it does not sell from the bolt?"

"Not always," replied Teresa Moore. "Many sales are bona fide. A jobber or manufacturer overloads with certain fabrics or products, and is forced to raise cash. He prefers to get rid of his entire overproduction at cost, than to lose in the long run. The merchant who secures these big lots for cash can give his customers the benefit of a bona fide sale, and he does this in a legitimate way entirely satisfactory to the customer."

"Which means that a woman must know what she is buying," added Mrs. Norton. "I saw two women fairly quarreling over some shirts which each wanted to buy for her husband. The woman who finally won on the score that she had picked them up first, was opening her purse, when she gave a little cry: 'Oh, I can't take