Dawson Black: Retail Merchant Part 45

"You will find," said Martin, "that the Woolton people will make their store as bright as possible, and I am afraid that ours will look a little dull in comparison."

When Stigler had had the store fitted up he had had some very powerful lights put in, but he had never used them much. My store was not any too bright, although, of course, like him, I used electricity.

"I tell you what we'll do," I said. "We'll have an electrical display in both windows and, for the first week, we'll try to get a bigger blaze of light in our windows than they will have. We'll display the best quality goods that we can, so as to avoid any attempt at compet.i.tion with them, but we'll make our store so bright that every one going to their store for bargains will be impressed with our up-to-dateness."

That is what we decided to do.

Martin had given me his handbill advertising the vacuum cleaners. On the next page is a copy of it.

LET INVISIBLE HANDS DO YOUR HEAVY CLEANING

Instead of hiring help to clean your carpets, let one of our PEERLESS ELECTRICAL VACUUM SWEEPERS do it for you.

PEERLESS ELECTRICAL VACUUM SWEEPERS are quiet, efficient, and thorough. You don't have to find meals for them and they never answer back.

If you have electricity in your home hire a PEERLESS ELECTRICAL VACUUM SWEEPER to clean your rugs.

$2.00 a day--delivered and collected free.

A child can operate them, but they do the work of a giant.

A special demonstration all next week at

DAWSON BLACK'S HARDWARE STORE 32 Hill St.

"If it's electrical you can get it from us."

I had had Roger Burns around for dinner the previous Sunday. He used to go to school with Betty and me, so of course when I told Betty that the New England Hardware Company, for which Roger was working, had made him manager of its chain store in Farmdale, the first thing she said was that we must ask him for dinner.

While Betty and the Mater were clearing away the dinner things, I asked Roger how business was coming along.

"Well," he said, "we knew pretty well what we would do before we came."

"How could you tell?" I asked, laughing.

"We knew how much money we were to invest in Farmdale. We knew how often we ought to turn over our stock every year. We also knew what our expenses would be, and what our profits would be."

I couldn't help smiling as I said, "The only thing you didn't know was whether the people would buy the goods."

"That's where you're wrong," said Roger. "We knew what the people would buy, because we a.n.a.lyzed the market so thoroughly. We knew just what kind of goods each cla.s.s of people bought; and how often they bought certain kinds of goods. And with our experience in marketing we knew how to get them into our store."

After Roger had left I thought that over a lot, and believed there was some truth in what he had said.

"Of course," I said, "it is much easier for you people to make money than it is for me, because you buy much cheaper than I can, and your expenses are so much less. You could afford to sell cheaper than I do, and still make a handsome profit."

"As a matter of fact," said Roger, "you are wrong; for, while the actual operating expense of this store would be a smaller percentage than your actual operating expense, we have a heavy supervision cost. It is a fallacy to believe that the larger store can operate for less expense.

It cannot. The bigger business you have, the more money you have to pay the executives to control that business, and there is such a scramble for really big men that salaries of fifteen thousand dollars and twenty thousand dollars a year are not unusual. Our general manager makes eighteen thousand dollars a year!"

"Think of making eighteen thousand dollars a year! Three hundred and sixty a week! Sixty a day! Working six hours a day! Ten dollars an hour!

And here I pike along on twenty-five dollars a week and work my head off ten hours a day. Then you mean to say that it really costs you more to do business than it does me?"

"It surely does," he said, "but, while we get a smaller net profit on each sale, we possibly exercise more judgment in buying than you do, as we see that everything we buy is a quick seller. That off-sets the increased cost of doing business.

"Another big advantage the chain store has over the single store,"

continued Roger, "is that we have very little unsalable stock to dispose of. For instance, I have just had a lot of brushes sent me from one of the other stores. They cannot sell them, so, rather than have them sold at a sacrifice, the brushes were sent on to us. I am doing quite a big business in paint brushes--you know we specialize on brushes of all kinds, and I really think that already we are beginning to dominate that field in Farmdale.

"By the way," added Roger, "you ought to meet Pat Burke."

"Pat Burke?"

"Yes, he is the manager of the new Woolton store here--awfully nice fellow."

"When did you know him?" I said.

"Strange to say, he was a.s.sistant manager of the Hartford Woolton store when I was there, and I got to know him quite well."

"I hardly like to call on him," I said. "Remember, he's a direct compet.i.tor of mine, and next door to me."

"Compet.i.tor nothing," said Roger good-naturedly. "You are not compet.i.tors at all. You are selling different cla.s.ses of goods, and you ought to supplement each other."

That was a new thought to me. I wondered if a five-and-ten-cent store was a hindrance or a help to an adjoining hardware store?

A man named Purkes ran a grocery store at the corner opposite Traglio's drug store. He was an undersized man and fussed and interfered with everybody else's business, and made a living chiefly because he hadn't much compet.i.tion.

About two weeks before, a salesman of cheap enamelware had come into town, gone to Purkes, and sold him two or three cases of "seconds."

Purkes thought he was a real fellow when he filled his window full of those seconds. The same week I was having a display of perfect enamelware. He put a price on his goods of ten cents each. He also had a big sign in the window, reading: "Don't pay fancy prices for enamelware.

Purkes's cut-rate grocery store will sell you all you want for ten cents each. Pick them out as long as they last."

Now, old Barlow always played the game square. Stigler was certainly a hardware man, and I could stand for his cut prices; but, when a grocery store came b.u.t.ting in, I felt mad, and I told Charlie Martin that I'd like to get Purkes's scalp somehow. Charlie suggested quite a good little stunt.

Three days after Purkes offered his enamelware I had a window full of--what do you think?--tea; in half-pound packets! And it was an advertised line, Milton's, which was a line that Purkes had sold for a long time! That tea usually sold for fifty cents a pound. I put a sign in the window saying: "Why pay fifty cents a pound for Milton's tea, when you can buy it here for thirty-eight cents a pound, nineteen cents the half pound."

That was exactly what it cost us. Martin had got hold of it for us from a friend of his in Providence, who was a wholesale grocer.

You really would have laughed to see Purkes come flying into our store about fifteen minutes after our window trim was complete. He reminded me of a wet hen who had had her tail feathers pulled out. He couldn't speak, he just sputtered and pointed to the window. After a minute I caught the words, "Scoundrel!" and "robber!" and "unjust!" and "report to the Merchants' a.s.sociation!"

I turned around and caught sight of Charlie grinning his head off. He pa.s.sed the high sign to me, which I understood to mean "Let him talk."

So I beckoned to Charlie to come over.

"This is the man who thought up that idea," I said to Purkes. "It's a good one, don't you think?"

Both Charlie and I saw that Purkes was going to explode again, so Charlie said:

"Now listen, Mr. Purkes. Do you think it is any worse for us to sell tea than for you to sell enamelware?"

"But that's just a job line I bought! Just the little I sell could not hurt you,"--then he added maliciously, "unless, of course, you get fancy prices for your goods."

I felt like throwing him out of the store; but Charlie ignored his last remark and said, "That idea of yours selling enamelware was so excellent that I thought we ought to copy it. You sell hardware--we sell groceries."