Dawson Black: Retail Merchant Part 25

Bulder, the Garter trading stamp man, called according to arrangement.

"_Good_ morning, Mr. Black," he said heartily, as he entered the store.

"Well, I _don't_ think we'll have much difficulty in getting this little matter fixed up to-day. It is going to mean a _big_ thing for you, and you can be _quite_ sure that the Garter Trading Stamp Company is going to be at the back of you to make this thing a _big success_."

He spoke quite confidently, as if he were sure I was going to take them up. And indeed I had been all along practically decided to adopt them.

"That's fine," I said in response to Bulder's greeting. "I want you, however, to meet Mr. Fellows, who is waiting in my office." I saw a faint change take place in Bulder's manner. He seemed at once to become a little suspicious and on his guard.

"Fellows? Fellows?" he replied. "Oh, one of your men?"

"Well, yes and no," I returned with a laugh. "He is connected with the Flaxon Advertising Agency and he does all my advertising, and I like to get the benefits of his ideas."

"Mr. Black," said Bulder, "I am doing this business with you, and while I am _sure_ that Mr. Fellows is a _mighty_ fine man, you could hardly expect me to want to talk this matter over with him--at any rate, with the idea of helping you to decide what to do; for, you see, he is an advertising man and _naturally_ wants to spend all your appropriation himself."

"Fellows isn't that kind," I replied, somewhat curtly.

Bulder saw that he had been tactless, so he put his hand on my shoulder, and said, soothingly:

"_That's_ all right, Mr. Black, I was only joking. Glad to talk the matter over with _any_ friend of yours."

I don't know why it was, but I seemed from that moment to feel a distrust of him. I had rather liked him before. But now he seemed to me too suave, too--oh, too fat and easy about it.

Well, we went into my little office and I introduced him to Fellows.

"Our mutual friend, Mr. Black," said Bulder with a smile, "wants me to talk over with you both the _splendid_ possibilities of his store through the Garter Trading Stamps. _Good idea._ It shows he is cautious and has good judgment."

"Mr. Black is quite a busy man, you know, Mr. Bulder," Fellows replied, "and perhaps don't have time enough always to think over every angle of a proposition; so he very wisely believes in talking things over and getting an outside viewpoint. Mr. Black can a.n.a.lyze these problems himself just as well as you or I can; but he believes in conserving his time and energies as much as he can."

All this preliminary by-play interested and amused me. But then the real battle began. Imagine those two--that big, burly, good-natured, somewhat bulldozing Bulder, and the shrewd, courteous New Englander, Fellows; Bulder with his heavy, sledge-hammer methods,--the bludgeon method, you might call it,--and Fellows with his keen, sharp, rapier methods.

Bulder realized at once that Fellows was strongly against the stamps, and that it was going to be a battle of wits and logic. I had better confess that my sporting blood was roused, and I had decided that the fellow who won the argument would have me on his side.

"What do you know about the company?" I asked Fellows, so as to get things started.

"Not a thing," he said, "but I am sure that that is a matter of minor importance; for Mr. Bulder is too big a business man to connect himself with an organization that is not thoroughly sound."

Very neatly put!--and yet I could see that, even if the trading stamp proposition won, Bulder would still have to prove that his company was financially and morally sound.

How I wish I could write down in full detail all that was said by both of them, but I can't remember it all. Bulder started in with a few heavy blows by stating that the Garter trading stamps gave the merchant who handled them a decided advantage over his compet.i.tors; for their splendid premium catalog, their numerous supply stations, the fact that they would let me have a set of representative premiums for window display, the excellent line of advertising matter which he said was part of the service which I bought from them at the time I bought their stamps. . . . "You _quite_ understand, Mr. Black," he said laboriously, "that you are not buying _just_ trading stamps from us, or trading tokens as we prefer to call them, but you are buying a merchandising service--you are buying _all_ the selling ideas and helps which we can give you, besides the _splendid_ backing which the name of Garter stamps gives you.

"And," he continued to Fellows, for he knew that Fellows was the opposition and not I, "when Mr. Black takes up our agency, _no_ other hardware man in town will be able to get it. . . . In fact," he said, with a sudden burst of generosity, "so that there will be absolutely no question of full protection and no compet.i.tion, we will not _even_ supply a gla.s.s and china store, a five-and-ten-cent store, a cutlery store, or a novelty store--in fact, _any_ other store which might compete with him in _any_ way.

"Thus, you see, I am offering you something, Mr. Black," he said with an ingratiating smile, "which is a _wonderful_ advantage to you. It will really put _your_ store in a cla.s.s by itself."

"Fine!" broke in Fellows, before I could say anything. "A thought has just occurred to me, however. While you promise that no other hardware man shall have the _Garter_ stamps, can you promise that no _other_ trading stamp concern will offer stamps to any other hardware man in Farmdale?"

Bidder replied with a deprecating smile: "What other concerns are there of our importance and size?"

Fellows came back with the names of two concerns which were better known to me than the Garter trading stamp.

"Why, yes," drawled Bulder, "of course, they _might_ offer stamps to some other hardware man. But, my dear sir, think a minute--what are the value of _their_ stamps compared to _ours_? Why, my good friend, you _can't_ compare them! Every woman in town knows that Garter stamps have a higher premium value than _any_ others."

"Exactly," replied Fellows. "By the way, what other stores have you in this town at present?"

Bulder slowly turned until he was facing Fellows. Leaning his elbow on the desk, he asked:

"Didn't I tell you that I was giving Mr. Black the opportunity to reap the _big benefit_ of being the first with our stamps here?"

"That's funny!" I broke in impetuously, but a look from Fellows stopped me. I had been going to say that I didn't see how his last two remarks gibed; for in one breath he had said that every woman in town knew that Garter trading stamps were better, and in the next he had said that I was to reap the first big benefit of having the stamps.

Fellows had leaned forward and was saying to Bulder:

"Mr. Bulder, do you really believe it is good business to offer something for nothing?"

"Surely," cried Bulder, "you are not going to bring up that worn-out argument? Everybody knows that it is not something for nothing. . . .

Look here, my good friend," said he, turning to me, "if you buy some goods and pay cash you _expect_ a discount for paying cash, don't you?"

"Yes," I replied hesitatingly.

"_Surely_ you do! And if you didn't get the discount for cash, you would take all the credit you could, _wouldn't_ you? . . . Very well," he continued, without waiting for a reply, "that's what our stamps will do. They are not something for nothing. They are merely a discount for cash. People that don't pay cash don't get the stamps. . . ."

Then he went on to tell me about some stores which had changed from a credit basis to cash through the use of Garter stamps. In my imagination I saw Fellows being driven into a corner by Bulder's bludgeon, his rapier beaten down and his defenses gone.

Fellows kept trying to work a word in edgewise, but Bulder, by the continued force of his words, beat down all Fellows' attempts to break in. Finally Bulder leaned back and said:

"Surely you are not going to stick to your foolish idea that trading stamps _are_ something for nothing. _All_ sensible people know that no one can give something for nothing and live, and I trust that the trading stamp concerns are sensible people. It is merely a cash discount."

"Why couldn't I give a cash discount, instead?" I asked--and as soon as I said it I was sorry I had, because I noticed a look of annoyance in Fellows' face.

"That is a _very_ sensible question," said Bulder. "Because if you did give the cash discount yourself it would be so _trifling_ that the people would not realize it was of any advantage to them. If somebody comes in and spends a dollar with you, and you give them two cents discount, what is it to them? It is nothing at all! But if you give them _trading stamps_, those have a _real_ value in their eyes."

"Then why couldn't I give trading stamps of my own--just have them printed and give them out?"

"Because _every_ trading stamp concern in the country could beat you on the value of _your_ premiums. Think of the _tremendous_ buying power that we have. It would be _absolutely_ impossible for you to give trading stamps of your own and have _any_ chance with compet.i.tion. Now, I don't think for a moment that you are not as keen a business man as the next fellow, but the big concerns realize that it is _specialization_ that means success, and we have simply specialized in this one branch of marketing to help _you_ fellows do something which you could do yourselves, but not _nearly_ so effectively or cheaply as we can. Do you think the big department stores up and down the country would have trading stamps from us if they _could_ handle them as cheaply themselves? No, of _course_ not!"

"Well," here broke in Fellows quietly, "I may be mistaken, but I believe that trading stamps are an outgrowth of inefficiency and laziness on the part of retail merchants. Of course, the people who sell trading stamps get value for their money, but the retailer and the consumer both pay for it. The retailer pays for it by losing, let us say, three per cent.

on each turn-over of his stock investment. Suppose Mr. Black here turns his stock over five times a year, he is really paying fifteen per cent.

of his investment to you people for something which you must admit is not exclusively his. Do you think it is possible for a retail merchant to continue that and live? If it is, he might spend that fifteen per cent. in increasing the quality of his store service rather than to pay it to an outside organization to supply a subst.i.tute for it. One thing is sure--no merchant can pay fifteen per cent. on his investment and stand that expenditure himself. If he handles the stamps, why, up go his prices, wherever he can manage it, to make the consumer pay for them.

"I am sure you will agree with me that in the end it is the consumer who pays the freight. This whole proposition looks to me like selling a man a sack of flour, and then making him pay for the sack of flour and a half dozen collars or a pair of suspenders besides. He doesn't want those collars or suspenders, mind you, but they are included with the purchase price, and, whether he takes them or not, he has to pay for them."

Bulder leaned back with a patronizing air. "My young friend," he said to Fellows, "you talk _very_ interestingly, but the things you say are _mere_ generalities. You have not given a _single_ concrete fact showing where the trading stamps would hurt our friend here, while I have _already_ given Mr. Black a _number_ of cases, which he can easily verify for himself, of merchants who _have_ improved their business by trading stamps.

"My proposition to Mr. Black is that he tries the stamps for a year, and if he does not find"--and here he tapped the table impressively with his fingers--"if he does not find that they have _actually_ increased his business, why then we will call the deal off. We will risk--_gladly_ risk--all the _heavy_ expenditures of working with Mr. Black. We will risk the lost prestige to ourselves of having a dealer give up our _splendid_ offer; and I do this, Mr. Fellows, because I _know_ from past experience--not from mere theories--that Garter stamps will mean an _increased profit_ to Mr. Black."

"Would you supply any other line of business in this town, Mr. Bulder?"

asked Fellows quietly.

"Certainly, my young friend. Because by doing so it would _help_ Mr.