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Show REPORT SHOWS BUSINESS GAIN "Business Survey" Comments on Progress Made by J. C. Penney Company. (Reprinted from die Business Survey, Sur-vey, May 15. 1924.) There are certain stores to which most persons always turn when they want goods of a known merit. These stores are those of one of the great chain systems. To operate a chain store system profitably there is one essential: there must be a very rapid turnover. To attain this is the secret of the success of the chain stores. Many persons go into a store of the ordinary merchant nnd see goods priced beyond what they wish to pay. Then they go to ft chain store, such as one of the J. C. Penney company stores, nnd they see the same article at a much lower price. Many unthinking persons ns-sume ns-sume that the article is inferior. But after close examination it is as good as the article offered in the other store, and half dubiously he buys it. The fact is, the artu-le purchased in the chain store is as good or better bet-ter than the one purchased in the ordinary store. The reason for this difference is apparent to one who has had experience in merchandising. merchan-dising. The local merchant has the benefit of his regular customers; people who know him in the city, through bis own neighborhood and other contacts. They go to him with confidence that he will give them sound goods at a reasonable price. And in all likelihood he does. But he sells only at his one store, his range of goods and sales are limited. Hence he must sell at a price to make a profit upon this small range of goods and sales. But a chain store maintains a wide range of goods, they profit ' from many stores, and many sales. There is less overhead per sale, and through large quantity buying they effect great savings for their customers. cus-tomers. The chain store must sell goods of unquestioned quality or they cannot can-not hope to win trade, and they must sell at a very small margin of profit or they will have a slow turnover. So by selling great volume vol-ume at a small individual profit, the company is able to succeed and to give the public exceptional values. The J. C. renney company is one of the great chain Stores which have succeeded in providing the public with goods of merit at reasonable rea-sonable prices. And that the company com-pany is gaining the volume of the trade one need only examine their recent report. According to this report re-port for the first four months this; year tbe company sales amounted to $17,82.342. This represents a j gain of $3,415,000 over the same period last year. The J. C. Penney i company is rapidly taking its place i at the head of the great chain store j I companies, and they are doing it j I upon the only sound basis it can be; done, of merchandising a greater volume of goods of unquestioned merit at prices that attract trade, and to hold that trade by n service that wins the loyalty of their customers. cus-tomers. This is the only formula I for success, and the J- O. Penney ' company officers have applied it with unusual effect as their latest report shows. |