ALTHOUGH CONSUMER ATTITUDES MAY BE RISING FROM THEIR DEPTHS, retailers are not counting on a pickup in business anytime soon. Businesses in general are bracing for a long difficult period and merely hoping to weather the storm. A spot check of retail furriers in the past two weeks indicated that their plans for the coming fall-winter season are even more conservative than they were for the past year. Orders placed in Hong Kong and at the other fairs so far have been down. And, while there may be more Americans attending the fair in Montreal next month, they expect to concentrate on bare necessities and new items to spice up the inventories they are carrying over.

THE RECENTLY-COMPLETED AUCTION AT KOPENHAGEN FUR was rated as successful from a turnover standpoint, with the offering of 5 million mink virtually all sold. Although prices averaged about 40% below last year's levels - which were at an all-time peak - the results were consistent with recent results elsewhere and a strong indication that confidence had returned to the industry despite the economic turmoil around the world.

Of the approximately 550 buyers on hand - a near-record in itself - a whopping 400 were from the Far East, mostly mainland China, but also Korea and Japan. The Koreans, historically major buyers of better-quality females, have resumed that course after holding back because of currency problems. But their won has recovered some lost ground since last year and that, combined with the lower prices, has made mink attractive to them again. On the other hand, economic problems have kept the Russians away from both the fairs and the auctions, the latter causing a weakening in the prices of large male mink. This was reflected in the overall results of the sale, the company reporting that while females were firm to February levels, male prices dipped 9%.