Assignment
DETERMINING ON A CONSUMER POLICY
The mayor of -Cladiron, a city of 150,000 population, emphasized, in his yearly report, that the peculiarly American custom of commercializing religious days and civic holidays was coming to be one of the more blatant aspects of the free enterprise system. Many of these holidays, he said, are so associated with sales promotional campaigns that their significance has been lost. Almost every Sunday has become a date on which to start promotion of a particular class of merchandise. As examples he pointed out that Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, leads into Pencil Week, Good Friday, the most solemn day in the Christian calendar is in the Let's Play Ball Week; Easter Sunday marks the beginning of Honey for Breakfast Week; Mother's Day collides with National Frozen Food Week and Leather Goods Week. Father's Day gets the National Bow Tie Week started. The mayor pointed out that the emphasis on Sunday business in Cladiron had developed so much in the sales of groceries, real estate, and automobiles that some of the firms made over 25 per cent of their weekly sales on Sunday. The mayor urged the merchants to take immediate action in their trade association meetings to restrict Sunday openings.
At the following meeting of the 15 Cladiron new automobile dealers, two-thirds of them voted to close on Sunday. This majority was adequate, under the by-laws of the organization, to enforce Sunday closing. The group decided to run the advertisement as given in Exhibit I. Exhibit I Notice Effective February 1, the members of the Cladiron Motor Car Dealers' Association will close both their new and used car departments on Sundays. This Sunday closing has been effected to allow the employees of these organizations to attend to their religious duties and to spend more time with their families. In addition, it is our belief that this new policy will be of benefit to all of our customers. The members of the Association who had voted against the Sunday closing did not believe that consumers would accept the new policy. Cladiron City 71 It was their opinion that customers wanted to shop for automobiles on Sunday because it was the one day in the week when both the husband and wife were free. The action did not include dealers who sold only used cars. Shortly after the new automobile dealers had run the Sunday closing advertisement, the Cladiron realtors recommended Sunday closing of real estate offices and elimination of Sunday real estate "open houses."
The Home Builders of Greater Cladiron opposed the policy and issued the following statement: Sunday is and has been the only time the average family has to look at houses. Shopping for a house is not like shopping for a car or television set. Each house is fundamentally different. The Cladiron realty board, however, said every effort would be made to close offices and eliminate open houses on Sundays and holidays, although the policy would not prevent showing of homes to prospective buyers on Sunday by previously arranged appointments. The Board believed that the policy would encourage higher professional standards in the real estate business and provide real estate men with a day off.
At the same time, the four major department stores in Cladiron decided to open on Sundays to compete with discount houses and markets, which were siphoning off a portion of their trade. Although 39 states have laws banning nonessential work on Sundays, the enforcement of these laws has been lax, except in scattered instances, for many years. The department stores in Cladiron contended that the buying habits of consumers had changed, and, in order to satisfy them, it was essential to keep open on Sunday. Neither did they believe it was the obligation of the stores to try and change these habits.
QUESTIONS
1. How important do you believe are the changes in the buying habits of customers that have resulted in more stores staying open on Sunday?
2. Evaluate the decision of the new automobile dealers, the real estate board, and the department stores.
3. How can the new automobile dealers meet the competition of the used car lots that remain open on Sunday? What procedure can the real estate members use?
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.