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Show ft I Local Merchants Corner I I Jl ST TWO ENDS TO MKIUHAN I DISINC I Thori1 are just two princ ip:il divis- ions to merchandising. Thoy are Bj Buying unit Selling. Of the two, We I believe that the Conner is of most ini- I portance: IV. if you do not buy right I it is nighty 'mid to sell right. M I merchants pay entirely too little ot- , I tetition to the buying end of the liu-;- I iness. '1 hey remain behind the nnu- I ters of their stores dotng the work of I un ordinary cheap clerk (if theie is fany suh thinir ns that tlO dajf i .u! wait for traveling men tn roitu and tell them what they want, Don much iliey want of it and how ii icl thej should pny for it. The take no means of Informing themselves as to what merchandise is worth in the big ! world markets, hut rely entirely upon what Salt Lake traveling men tell them. Sometinies the prices paid are right and M low as the same grade of merchandise can be lioufcht for in the ElMtern market., and delivered Id their stores; in some cases, the prices are unreasonable, and as a result the merchant has to overcharge his customers cus-tomers and not infrequently la I their trade. Many of the consumers, throufrh the medium of mail order catalogs, cat-alogs, are better posted as to the value val-ue of merchandise than the merchant, and if he feels that he is being over chartred, naturally he resents it. A -.rood many merchants have adopted the plan of troinn Kast to the hip markets mar-kets once or twice a year to do most of their buying, and apparently are fraininu considerable advantage by so doinp. We are convinced that this will Kradually jrain in favor until it will become almost a universal rule with merchants. To be sure it will reepjire some capital and ready money to do this, bu the merchandising gMM is unsympathetic in its nature, and like most other human activities, is n question of the survival of the strongest and litest. The litle fellows who cannot adopt improved methods will naturally have to drop out. When merchants learn to buy rittht, the question of the mail order bouse and its competition will have been largely solved. In the matter of buying, the newspaper news-paper cannot be of much assistance, aside from occasionally offering suggestions, sug-gestions, which may or may not prove helpful; but when we turn to the selling end of the business, it becomes an important factor. And even with goods bought right, and housed right, there, is still something to lie done before be-fore the money they represent finds its way into the cash register. Your goods may be ever so nice, late, stylish styl-ish and well made, and the price may be as low as is possible for the grade of merchandise offered, but unless people peo-ple know these things they are not any more likely to buy from you than from others, and they may actually be sending away for goods of inferior quality and be paying a higher price for them, because, perchance, at some time in the past they have apparently obtained a better bargain from a mail order house. They need to be told of these things; told frequently and impressively. im-pressively. The human mind is open to suggestion, and confidence on the part of the merchant or salesman inspires in-spires confidence in the purchaser. A merchant who cannot give any good and logical reason why a customer should buy goods from him, is not likely to succeed where there is competition. com-petition. It requires contidence and enthusiasm to become a good salesman, sales-man, and this feeling of optimism and conldence must be reflected in your advertising. |