Ask Vance Blog

During my lonely days and nights in the Lauderdale Mansion, I'll often pull out musty copies of The Commercial Appeal or Memphis Press-Scimitar, settle back in my La-Z-Boy with a jug of moonshine, and relive the good old days.

And sometimes those days seem pretty strange. Case in point: In December 1941, Goldsmith's (describing itself as "Memphis' Greatest Christmas Store") had apparently advertised some "interwoven" socks for sale. You could pay 39 cents for a pair, or get three pair for a buck. Seems reasonable, no?

But wait — that was WRONG. The following day, the store ran this correction, saying, "We are sorry — this was an error."

Oh my gosh. What horrible mistake did they — COULD they — have made in a simple ad for SOCKS?

Why, they got the price wrong, and were losing almost 10 cents on every sale! Just look. The correct price should have been three pairs for ... $1.10.

Boy, I guess they must have planned on selling lots of these socks to pay for the cost of running the correction.