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Show The Country Dealer For several years we have had dinned din-ned into our ears doleful tales of woe of what was to happen to the country dealer when the parcel-post juggernaut arrived. An analysis of this sentiment, senti-ment, which was and is yet honestly entertained by thousands of small country merchants, is interesting. The surpicion is not wholly wanting that the express companies had very early knowledge of this impending doom; a large number of the trade papers; of which there are hundreds, I with a surprising unanimity became obsessed with the idea that a parcel ' pest mea t the end of the country dealer, with the easy conclusion, "No I country dealer, little need for the trade paper." Hence, for years the trade paper has carried its weekly message of death to parcel post, and little wonder that the dealer became infected. The main line story was that parcel post was the dream of that arch enemy of the country merchant, the mail-order house. This statement became be-came an accepted fact, not even worthy of discussion. Now, the parcel system will doubtless be of some advantage ad-vantage to the big mail-order houses, but nothing like what we have been told. Tne articles which they sell, practical to send by !' - ire not so very r".any" atier all. What the ma'1-oraer houses make their money on are not sales under one dollar, but over I ten. It costs them practically as much to put a dollar order through the house as it does one for twenty-five dollars. And if their entire business were in single shipments of dollar articles, they wouldn't make much money. The low-priced articles of t jmmon use, of which there are hundreds, hun-dreds, are sold nearly as cheaply at the corner store. For instance, a man wants a 5-gallon can which his home i dealer sells for $1.20. The mail-order house sells the same identical can for 95 cents. But by the time the custo-1 mer buys a money order and pays for paicel postage it has cost him $1.15. If the buyer is ordering a bill of goodi, that's another matter, but the shipment ship-ment then goes by freight, not parcel ' post. i Another angle, which does not seem j to be taken into account, but which i very soon will be, is the advantage of the parcel system to the small country dealer. A customer corn's in to order, , say, an unusual size cf screwdriver. ; Dealer is out; in fact, the last call for one was a year ago, therefore he can-! can-! not afford to stock up. He explains to I the customer and says he can have one in two days. Very good. He spends ! one cent on a postal card ordering from ; his jobber in the city, who mails it 300 j miles for 7 cents. It has cost the j merchant 12 cents for the tool and 8 ! cents postage, total 20 cents, and it retails for 30 cents, with a net profiit of 10 cents or 50 per cent. Under the old regime the express charges would have absorbed all the profit, or more. A new business, or rather the devel opment and expansion of an old one, which will come with parcel post, is the manufacture and sale of cartons, or pasteboard containers for mailing all sorts of things. In Great Britain the parcel post is very profitable to the government, a large volume of business being done in local city delivery. Many of the smaller shops use it exclusively for delivery, as, for instance, a box of cigars bought at 1 p. m. on the Strand will be delivered at 4 to 5 p. m., 8 miles distant.for about 3 cents of our money. We have nothing to compare with this at present, but in due time doubtless will. In the larger cities the parcels are not delivered by th e letter carrier, but by men with pushcarts. --H. H. Windsor in the March Popular Mechanics Mechan-ics Magazine. |