Urge to splurge

Tucked away in the safe at Lang's Jewelers in downtown Cape Girardeau are slips of papers from decades ago. Written on the slips are names, addresses, the type of jewelry being bought and a payment schedule.

"They're basically credit accounts," said owner Roger Lang. "They're something I should have thrown away years ago."

But that's the way the store his grandfather joined as an intern in 1905 used to do business.

"They wouldn't give credit to total strangers," Lang said. "But if my grandfather knew them, they basically would work them to let them pay it off over time. No interest, no nothing. Just a handshake was good enough."

It has been 20 years since the store has done business that way.

"You just don't do it anymore," he said. "It's a shame that we've come to that. But cash and check have become the primary way to pay."

It hasn't always been that way. The history of shopping and buying things has changed dramatically over the years. It began with bartering and haggling in outdoor bazaars and culminated with strictly monitored credit cards and the increasingly popular online shopping.

Groceries on credit

Lang remembers when parents of friends would buy groceries on credit.

"You'd go through the store and buy your groceries, go through the check-out line and charge it," he said. "When you got paid or whatever, you'd go in and pay your grocery bill."

Meyer's Supply Co. on Good Hope Street is one of the oldest retailers in the area, with roots dating to about 1900, said Dennis Meyer, who owns the store with his brother, Chuck.

Today, the store sells plumbing supplies and fixtures to contractors and homeowners, but in turn-of-the-century Cape Girardeau it was a hardware store.

"There used to be some sort of voucher system," Meyer said. "People would present something from a bank, similar to a check. Then it was presented to a bank for payment."

Meyer said the store still has charge accounts for customers.

Dr. Bruce Domazlicky, director of the Center for Economic and Business Research at Southeast Missouri State University, said in-store credit probably disappeared with the appearance of the automobile.

'A lot more options'

"Back then, people were more likely to know customers better, know them by name, especially in places like Cape Girardeau," he said. "People couldn't travel far to shop. When cars came along, people could go to different places, and there probably wasn't the kind of store loyalty that there had been. Consumers have a lot more options."

In-store credit has evolved into credit cards and debit cards which can be used almost everywhere people want to buy goods and services. Department stores like Sears started providing their own credit cards.

"As stores got bigger, they issued their own credit cards and the other kind of credit started to fade," Domazlicky said. "In the past, people might have a personal account at the store. I would guess that probably after World War II, big changes started to take place."

Credit cards started to gain popularity in the 1970s, he said.

"I know in the 1960s, when I went to school, no students had a credit card, and it wasn't very common among adults."

Later, MasterCard and Visa became more common and more widely owned. "I can still remember applying for a credit card, and they called my employers to make sure I had a job," Domazlicky said. "Now it's much easier to get one."

Cash has become less commonly used to make purchases, he said.

Debit cards have, however, made cash more readily available for those who do want to use it.

"In the '60s, the bank closed at 3, and if you didn't have any cash you weren't getting any, you were out of luck," Domazlicky said.

In recent years, consumers have had more options, including the introduction of online shopping, which allows customers to make purchases from home with the help of a personal computer, an Internet connection and a credit card.

Online shopping is gaining momentum. JupiterResearch, which tracks spending trends, announced recently that that online holiday retail spending in November and December rose to $22.1 billion and attributed this 22 percent increase mainly to an influx of new online buyers.

The research firm said about 17.7 million consumers made an online holiday purchase for the first time in 2004. It also found that 75 percent of the online shoppers bought from a site they had never before purchased from. In line with this trend, JupiterResearch expects online retail sales this year to surpass $79 billion, up from $66 billion last year.

"Online sales are still growing much faster than brick-and-mortar businesses," Domazlicky said. "In that respect, it's becoming more and more important."

But in total sales, online sales still account for a relatively small percentage, he said.

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137