ABSTRACT
Various devices are employed in this marketing system for sifting and sorting the consumers according to their risk and matching them with merchants willing to extend them credit. The merchant ready to assume great risk can presumably persuade the low-income customer to buy more than he intended to buy when he first entered the store. To some extent the merchant can count on legal controls over his customers. Thus, in addition to formal controls the merchants depend heavily on informal, personal controls over their customers. Many merchants adopt the methods of the customer-peddlers, employing their own canvassers, who visit the families in their homes both to collect payments and to sell additional merchandise. The merchants who offer "easy credit" frequently sell their contracts at a discount to a finance company. Many low-income consumers do not understand this procedure. Inability to maintain payments was not the only problem these consumers encountered.
