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Show MAIL ORDER HOUSES HAVE BIG YEAR 1 91 9 Business of Sears Roebuck and ' Montgomery Ward Reached High-Water Mark. SHORTSIGHTED METHODS SMALL TOWN RESIDENTS Local Merchants by Use of Local Newspapers May Help to. Stem the Cash Tide. A daily perusal of the financial page in the bijj city newspapers has its arf-i arf-i vantages, whether one's interest con cerns the conditions of the stock market, mar-ket, call money rate, foreign exchange or the activities of big business. Speaking of big business, a few days ago there appeared an item which certainly proved that mail order or-der houses are entitled to a place in that class. It read as follows: "Sears Roebuck A Co. will close the year (1010) with a total sales slightly in excess of S2.rfi,000,000 which compares with the previous high record of $198,52:1,000 for 1918,-an 1918,-an increase of about $57,000,000, or 28 per cent. A new record has also been made for a single day's receipts. a little more than $2,741,000 being taken in at Chicago, Seattle and Dallas, on December 8th. A new high mark for the Chicago office, also made this month, tops two billion dollars dol-lars by a few thousands. Both sums are all in cash. For a single day's orders a new record of 224,000 has been made. Ten Million Customers "Montgomery Ward St Co.'s sales for the year will exceed $100,000,000 for the first time, with an increase of about .IS per cent over the total of $7(,loti,848 for 1018. Nearly every ev-ery day for the last two months has made a record for this firm, the highest high-est mark being recorded on December Decem-ber 8th, with a total of $1,590,000. "These companies with their 10,-000,000 10,-000,000 or more customers, are buying buy-ing all kinds of merchandise and useful use-ful articles take first place." The statements "ten million customers, cus-tomers, "new high records," "paid in cash," and "useful articles" are exceptionally interesting, because it means that a large volume of trade was losl by retail merchants. Meeting the Situation This condition can be met singly or cellectively in your community. Customers must be impressed with the position that is occupied by the local retail merchant. Like the customer, cus-tomer, he is part of the community. His service is measured largely by the opportunities he is given to dem- , onstrate that service. If all buying were done through the mails, what a miserable community it would bo. ! To take the other extreme, if all buying buy-ing were done locally, people would not only get far more pleasure out of their buying, but the whole commun-iny commun-iny would benefit accordingly. A Question of Service. The paramount Issue is that of servioe. Mail order hose service stops when the package is wrapped up. Uncle Sam does the rest--just as he would do it for you if you sold goods that way. The mail order house it at a distinct disadvantage on this question of service, and that's where the local merchant should make a strong point, when talking to home town folks. What Is YOUR Stock Worth? If ten million people have enough repeated confidence to send nearly four hundred million dollars to two mail order houses, cash in advance, in one year buying from a catalogue what percentage of this would they stop sending out of town if you and others told them emphatically and frequently what you had to offer? Wake up! Sears Roebuck stock, par value 100 is now selling for $230. What's yours worth? |