Business: Gone Back

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First publisher to take advantage of the price-fixing provisions of New York State's Fair Trade Act since it was declared constitutional in a judicial flip-flop last month (TIME, March 22) was Macmillan Co., which last week fixed the price of Novelist Margaret Mitchell's gusty Gone With The Wind at $3. Reason: the book which has sold at the rate of 3¼, copies per minute since it was published last June has been a favorite object of price wars between Manhattan department stores.* Swept back to Macmillan next day like autumn leaves were 35,940 copies of Gone With The Wind, returned by R. H. Macy & Co. under terms also stated in the fair trade law. To mammoth, price-cutting Macy's, which has fought the law from the start and is out to publicize its opposition, there was little market left for Gone at $3. Macy's had sold the book as low as 87¢.

Had Macmillan refused to buy back the books at the purchase price (about $1.50 per copy), under the law Macy's could have sold them at any price. Big as the return shipment was, enough copies of the 1, 037-page book were kept to fill odd orders. Macy's total sales of the book since last June: 170,000. Sales at $3 the first two days after the price was fixed: ten.