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Presents charts depicting consumer nondurable goods shipments in the United States as of August 1999. Value of the nondurable shipments; Comparison between the consumer staples and total nondurable goods; Decline of packaged goods price index; Observation on the nonfood converting end markets.

Reports on the increase in the consumer spending for nondurable goods in the United States during 1998. Percentage of the increase; Continuous increase of overall book prices.

This article discusses the importance of including competition from outside the specific product category when conducting a market research survey. Generic or cross-category competition is not restricted to consumer non-durables like snack foods. Consumers may trade off some major home improvement against a European vacation, or vice versa. Businesses may weigh the purchase of advanced equipment against other alternatives such as outsourcing, changes in procedure, staffing changes or buying more units of equipment already in place, before getting down to a decision regarding makes and models. In business surveys, consideration of generic competition is a major nuisance for researchers, because it often requires multiple-respondent identification and interviews in the same company.

Reports on how retailers push for source tagging from softgoods vendors. Sports Authority's initial use of source tagging; Palmgard's testing of the Ultra-Max source tagging system being developed by Sensormatic Electronics Corp. and Paxar Corp.; Sportmart's intentions to use the Ultra-Max system; Description of the new labels; `Target' defined; Use of source tagging by hardgoods manufacturers.

Reports on nonprofit Softgoods Information and Research Coalition's April 17, 1997 meeting to address integrity issues in the business information and marketing research used in the soft goods industry. Theme of the meeting; Speakers.

The article presents information on the KSA/NPD Purchase Panel, the result of a joint effort between management consulting firm to the-textile and apparel industries Kurt Salmon Associates and marketing research firm The NPD Group in the U.S. in 1985. The marketing tool for the $100 billion soft-goods industry will be used to expand and enhance the consumer-market information available to soft-goods companies in the country.