I. Legal background of resale price maintenance, 454.—Present status of price maintenance, 455.—II. Quasi-monopolistic position of "differentiated" product producers, 455.—The effect of "fair trade" legislation on retail prices of contract items, 457.—III. Underlying factors making possible an artificial price structure, 458.—IV. Comparison of nationally advertised drug prices with non-nationally advertised comparable items, 460.—Relative ignorance of consumers regarding substitute products, 462.—V. Effect of price maintenance legislation in California, 462.—VI. Evaluation of "fair trade" in contrast to "loss leader" legislation, 463.—Education of the consumer as an essential element for breaking "fixed prices, " 464.

Within the last few years there has come to the fore in merchandising a sales promotional device based upon available accounting records of which comparatively little has been written but one possessing tremendous potentialities. This device, known among practitioners and theorists alike as customer analysis and control, is an attempt on the part of large stores to get acquainted with their customers, their needs and buying habits. By means of an analysis of customer accounts, buying habits can be discovered. The need for customer analysis has manifested itself in many ways during the last ten years. As a result of this condition not only are sales not as great as they might be but the success of ensemble merchandising is very definitely threatened as well. It is felt by many also that customer analysis and control is the one method by which advertising can be made more effective as the effort in many instances is aimed more directly at actual purchasers of a specific type of merchandise, waste circulation thus being reduced to a minimum. It must be realized that any problem of customer analysis and control is of a strictly individual nature. Thus, much of the success of any one merchant is at the expense of his competitors.

The medieval guilds, 311. — Modern guild regulations in the service trades — the barbers: importance of legislative aid, 312; non-price regulations, 314; price-fixing laws, 316; enforcement of regulations, 323. — Economic aspects of the pricing of barber services: characteristics of the “product” and the market, 325; pricing without restriction on individual action, 328; pricing with concert of action but without benefit of legislation, 330; pricing with minimum price legislation but without extralegal concert of action, 331; pricing with minimum price legislation undergirding extralegal concert of action, 333. — Guild pricing in other trades, 335.

I. Effects of devaluation contrasted with influence of other forces, 416.— Changes in total trade following devaluation of the dollar, 417.— Relations between price and quantity changes for individual commodities, 419.— II. "Ideal" prices (compensatory solely for currency changes) contrasted with recorded prices, 423.—Classification of changes in prevailing prices, 424.— Causal factors accounting for failure of recorded prices to reflect realization of effects of devaluation, 425.— III. Conclusion, 434.