Like you I was lulled out of my home by the scent of bargains to be had by two sources. The after Christmas sales of Department stores in general and the closing sale of the famous Montgomery Ward's Department store, in particular. We used to call it Monkey Wards when I was a kid.

At eight o'clock on Tuesday morning I was into a midst of after Christmas shoppers such as I had never seen before. For once, there was actually a line clear out to the parking lot at Montgomery Wards, in near-by Eagle Rock, where before there was an occasional shopper spot- ted in every department. When I was there last year, I actually thought that the people I saw were mannequins. Sadly the store's aggressive sales campaign, for this end-year sale, came two days after they had filed bankrupcy papers. I myself have been a customer for many years, I have found the products and services of Montgomery Ward's to be comparable to their competitors.

But, however, as the years went by, I had noticed that customer confidence had been waning, perhaps the start of which was due to the complaints from customers to the B.A.R., the Bureau of Automotive Repair the law enforcement arm of the Consumer Affairs Department. Along with Sears, who suffered and settled a 13 million dollar lawsuit brought by the BAR on behalf of its customers they were being charged for unlawful and unauthorized repairs to their customers automobiles. Slowly people started drifting away.

Here, at this office, my colleague, Mac Mcguire, who writes the Nuts n Bolts section of this Netnews tells me that another nail in the chain's coffin was their practice of underpaying sales and vehicle repair personnel. Detrimental employee word of mouth coupled with consumer dissatisfaction and false price advertizing will topple even the largest retailer. The proof of this adage is the crumbling of yet another old established, larger than life, national retailer. They willingly became a victim to the "Terminator of the Twentieth Century," LACK OF CONSUMER CONFIDENCE.

In the end, I found that the merchandise was not slashed enough to induce me to buy. I think I'll wait until next week.