D.C. Stores' Inventories Trimmed 5%
By S. Oliver Goodman I Investories of Washington department stores on January 31 were 5.1 percent less than a year ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond reported yesterday.</br></br>Baltimore stores on the same! date showed a 10.6 percent decline in stocks, while Richmond' stoics displayed a 4.1 percent dip. The Fifth Reserve Dis-j trict averaged 6.2 percent less.Ûª On the other hand. Washing-! ton stoicsÛª outstanding orders to replenish shelves on January 31 were reported 20.8 percent less than a year ago. Baltimore showed a 9.2 percent drop, while Richmond cut its orders 21.5 percent. The aver-1 age for the Fifth District was! 17 percent down.</br></br>On the sales side, local stores' showed a downtown dip of 5, percent for the week ended' February 27, while suburban! volume was 1 percent less than' the same 1953 period. Other. comparative sales figures follow: ton building permits in February amounted to S2.844,-296, slightly off from $2,943,-675 in the previous month this year. The February total was sharply lower than ] the $6,191,247 in same 1953 month. The cumulative fig- 1 ure for the first two months of 1954 was $5,787,971, as compared with $9,116,314 in corresponding period last year.</br></br>Û¢HONORED: Ernest R. Goodwin Jr., top Washington salesman of Hoffman-La Roche, Inc., for 1953 was honored at a din-</br></br>L. D. Barney, president of the New Jersey pharmacutic a 1 vjv5-firm, presented Goodwin with his second award as a member of the companyÛªs Top Ten Club.