Saving is the problem of _over there_, and of the future. Spending is
the problem of _here_ and _now_, and in the expenditure for present
needs as well as in saving for future wants the foreign-born housewife
meets with special difficulties. She is handicapped by the kinds of
places at which she must buy, because of language, custom, and time
limitations, as well as the grade of article available. Through the
complicated maze of choices open to her she must steer her way to
obtain for her family the highest returns for an all too small
expenditure. The art of spending, too often neglected by her
native-born sisters, takes on added difficulties for the untrained
immigrant woman.
From the point of view of the housewife the desirable thing is that
the transaction of buying her household goods and food and of
selecting her house, shall be as simple as possible. It should be made
easy for her to know the quantity and to judge the quality of any
article she considers, so that she may the more easily compare its
possible use to her with the use of other articles that might be
secured for the same amount of money. It is also important that she
have as definite ideas as possible as to the range of the demand for
different kinds of goods, so that she may buy as few as possible of
the goods on which the price of special risk is placed. In many cases
she needs really expert advice. In the absence of such help she may do
her buying in either of two states of mind. She may think that all
merchants are cheats, there "to do her and to do her first," or she
may think that she has a right to expect from the dealer frank and
kindly advice.
In the present state of the retail organization she may find either
attitude. In shops kept by her co-nationals she will naturally have
the utmost confidence. This puts the small neighborhood stores in a
position of peculiar privilege, and makes it doubly easy for them to
take subtle advantage of the unwary customer. Even when the dealer
takes no special advantage of his customer, in following the general
practice of the trade, he can create innumerable situations in which
her problem is rendered more, rather than less, complicated. The
indefinite package is substituted for the definite weight or measure.
The "bars" of soap vary in weight and in composition. The trade _mark_
used to tell her that X made goods whose quality she knew; the trade
_name_, based on incalculable sums spent in skillful advertising,
tells her nothing that is of intrinsic use to her. It connects a name
with a repeated suggestion that she buy. By the trading stamp, the
premium, and the bargain counter the merchant tries to persuade her
that she is getting more than she pays for. He appeals to the gambling
instinct and introduces into a drab life something of the excitement
of the roulette table.