Show DEAD MERCHANT HE SOMETIMES DRIVES TRADE AWAY FROM TOWN HINDRANCE TO LIVE MERCHANT are as much to be feared as the compel tion of the catalogue houses should be avak ened or buried chy should the home merchant be patronized instead of the mall cider house the subject has been ex hansted almost and from all points ot view and all sides there Is no valid reason why the merchant at home should not excepting two price and art les wanted it is not the intention ot the writer to jot down a pleasant flow of lan guage or to produce an interesting bit of reading matter but merely to state in a few simple sentences what I 1 have seen and learned of the be tween the catalogue houses and the home merchants in the first place no one community supers greatly in this competition that makes the problem all the more difficult in solution I 1 mean by this that the majority of buy ers in no one community purchase by mail the business of the mall order house is scattered over a large terri tory the number of orders coming from any one community compared with the whole is comparatively small to the number of orders in the town there is an exception to this in a corn munley where the home merchants are dead ones and prices to illustrate there Is a little city la the central part of wisconsin a beau little place with its shad streets and pleasant homes it has several general stores owned by live wide awake merchants who are hustling tor business yet are always pleasant and ready to visit with a customer they are not put out at any time to show goods taking down bolt after bolt of cloth and maybe then not making even a five cent sale they take that as part of their business they are always when the local ed tor and the local merchant put their shoulders to the wheel of local progress the town will move its industries will thrive it will prosper but remember the editor cannot do it all he asks and must have the merchants assistance willing to send posthaste to the city tor any article they may not have in stock that is wanted by a customer their stocks are up to date and free from shelf worn goods these make the humblest customers feel wel come in their stores and particular at Is paid to waiting on children giving them even better measure and quality than their elders would re belve and these men are advertisers their ads in the local papers are changed regularly and show time and study they meet the mail order man more than halt way in special sales and clearing of odds and ends here Is an instance where there is no degl dimate excuse for a person sending away after goods and the people do not very few articles of general mer chandise chand lse are shipped into that city the buyer and seller are working in harmony to their own betterment and advantage but look at the other side the city which we have in mind has one hard ware and one furniture store both have fairly good stocks for the size of their circle of trade but just step into either one of these stores the pro krietor may be in the back room or the back yard tor all you know but by and by some stir is heard and leisurely he makes bis appearance neither store has need of a clerk and probably with some grumbles about being disturbed asks what is wanted there might as well be placards in the store announce ing buy what I 1 ve got and keep still and we are busy dont disturb us io effort is made to show you an arti cle nothing 1 ever taken down from the shelves unless directly asked tor neither hardware nor furniture man acts willing to get what you want if he does not have it in stock and again neither one of these stores believe in advertising they use no space in their home papers a newcomer would never know the city possessed such places of business enterprise who ever heard of a country hardware or furniture store having a special sale or harvest sale or the liked but why nota these two storekeepers are bit ter against the mail order houses I 1 wonder I 1 talked with the rail road agents in that little city and he said lots of hardware and furniture was shipped in he said one day I 1 made out an express order tor 34 to pay tor a bill of hardware I 1 told the man to go up ind see it the merchant coulden couldn t fill the order he went but soon came back saying that he dian didn t hive halt of the stuff on 1 and and that he wouldn t ci t a bit on what he did column after column has been writ ten deploring the tact that the buyer spend her or his money away from home that she or he is helping to build up the mail order house to the detri ment of the home merchant the sen ciment Is good and the cause Is worthy of the efforts being made to stop this undertow out no amount of writing and no r nt of home patriotism will ever overcome the bad effects of the dead merchant in the little town the truth can be plainly seen let us turn back to the general stores and 1001 up the proprietor af any one he probably will be fouad busy waiting on a customer but it not he will te I 1 you that it Is not the cata bogues alone that he tears but also that it Is the lethargy of these two dealers they are helping to drive away trade from home I 1 have from the subject and gotten over on the buyers side of the fence but isn t it well at times to look at the other side of this pitiable story I 1 started to write a few lines on why people should trade at home and have gotten into the field of why the home merchant should induce people to trade at home it may be fair to the little town to once in a while throw a few shovels full of earth on the dead merchant lest he stin keth and eth the rest EDWARD T HALE |