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Show MAIL ORDER 1 HOUSES BELIEVE IN ADVERTISING The semi-annual deluge of Montgomery-Ward mail order catalogs descended de-scended on the local post office the past week. About three hundred books were received from this house. It is estimated that a like number come to St. George from; Sears Roebuck and several hundred more come from the less popular houses such as Bellas-Hess-National, the Chicago Mail Order Ord-er Co., and others. This last batch of catalogs were shipped into Provo by freight, and then distributed to the out-lying towns through the mails. The postage from Provo to St. George on each catalog was 12 cents, and taking the number of catalogs received here in comparison with the population popula-tion of St. George, and using this as a basis for a rough estimate, it will be seen that millions of dollars are spent by this one house yearly on postage alone. Added to this is the cost of printing, freight charges, etc. Quite a neat little sum to spend for advertising adver-tising each year. While it is impossible to figure the exact amount of money these mail order houses take from St. George, it is estimated that around $2500 monthly month-ly leaves this town never to return. The amount of money you spend with the mail order houses retards the growth and prosperity of St. George and Washington county in exact proportion. pro-portion. It goes to build up Chicago, Kansas City, and Los Angeles, aids in the construction of fine highways which you will never use, and helps to swell the already fat bank accounts of the stockholders of these concerns. Not one cent will ever return to you in any form, shape or manner. While it is true that some articles, for which there is a small demand cannot be purchased at home, it is also true that a great majority of the goods you order from these mail order houses could be duplicated at home at no higher cost. It is your duty to your community and its institutions, before sending away for a bill of groceries, clothing, or any other article, to consult the local dealer to see whether or not he can supply you at the same cost as if you ordered from Kansas City or Kokomo. He is entitled to better than an even break. The local merchant supports the schools your children attend, supports your church, contributes to civic projects, pro-jects, helps build and maintain local highways and many other things too numerous to mention. When you are sick, out of work, or in financial distress from other causes, do the so-called "mail-order houses" ever contribute to carry you and yours over the period of depression? Not so you could notice it. When the financial depression struck in 1920 hundreds of old, established estab-lished retail merchants went to the wall and in every instance it was found that the chief cause of their failure was that they were carrying too many "accounts." Many of them had as high as $10,000 "on the books" and because be-cause these customers had been unable un-able to pay their bills in a time of financial stringency the merchant had to close his doors. Just let that point sink home. Singularly enough, the last few years have shown a big increase in the business of these so-called "mail order houses," who are known to gloat over the reverses of the farmers and boast that hard times always bring them the "best pickings." The mail order house never trusts you. They will sell to you only when you have the cash. They even figure out the postage for you so that there may be no chance that they will get struck for a single penny. They bitterly bit-terly opposed such measures as the McNary-Haugen bill to aid the farmers farm-ers to get on their feet again, merely for selfish reasons. They made capital capi-tal of the distress of your own friend, the local merchant, by inducing you to send them the cash that was so sorely needed by your own merchant to tide him over the hard spots. In fairness to your own neighbor and friend, don't you think it would be better to do your cash buying at home? Spend it with the man who helps you, who carries ycu through the period when you are out of work; who borrows bor-rows money at the bank to carry you through the summer and early fall until you can harvest your crops often of-ten waiting until the market offers you i price that will net you hundreds of dollars more than .you would otherwise have gotten. On the square, now. wouldn't it be much fairer to buy from the home-town merchants? |
