Show r BIG DIG COUNTRY MERCHANTS TS I 1 Concluded from Page f. f magazine magazino article and call it Community Community Com Con Events as Business Gotten Getters We can hardly wait walt on the trade when we have a big bis doings in n the tho auditorium Anything that brings a crowd to town helps our business Next to the Store News which I send scud out each month and the other advertising advertising advertising ad ad- sheets I mail out this auditorium auditorium auditorium au au- au- au brings me the most busi bus ness C The commercial club pays Pl'S Johnson's Johnsons Johnsons Johnson's John John- sons son's advertising man for tor get ng out the Auditorium Herald and for keeping keelIng the books of the The paper Is carefully we printed and filled with plc pictures u It tells P of the moving pictures hat taro ore coming each Friday night through h tho the blowing month with a of each tells of the dances and heralds the concerts poultry shows conventions and meetings to be held here bere It prints columns about good ro roads ds and like improvements If a family in Holdrege has a n guest from out of town he is always alwa's taken up to see Johnsons Johnson's sure window That window is the show showplace showplace place of the town and it is e e e- with pride especially if the stranger happens to be fm a big city Say youve you've got nothing n Jl 11 Omaha to beat that have you now the Holdrege man asks They have a right to be proud of it It is a row of plate-glass plate wIndows windows windows win wIn- dows two hundred feet loa long extending extending extend extend- ing the two sides of the store on the main corner Johnson pays a aman aman aman man a year ear to look after the bargain basement and to keep the windows dressed and he gives him hin himan himan hinan an artist to help on the paintings and the grounds back-grounds and the cutouts cutouts cutouts cut outs for the show in those wIndows windows windows win wIn- dows costs me a lot but I know that it pays It not only advertises the seasonable goods on sale but it advertises advertises advertises ad ad- my store in a general way makes it talked about and it advertises advertises advertises adver adver- the town I was in another country town about the size of this last July and the leading merchant had a crosscut saw in the window He was complaining complaining complaining com com- about poor business and how the order mall houses were cutting cutting cutting cut cut- ting into him I asked him When did you hang that crosscut crosscut crosscut cross cross- cut saw in fn the window Last fall Well Vell shucks says I I. I Did you your ou ever sell a crosscut saw in July r r. Come to think of it I never did he says No and you never will People bu buy crosscut saws only when they're going to saw wood and that's in cold weather That being the case why not take down the saw and put in something folks do buy in July I asked him He had never thought of that Too many lUany storekeepers are like him hill and then they sit round and cLew chew tobacco and cuss the the I order mail houses Too many country merchants merchants merchants mer mer- chants pay too little attention to I IA displaying goods A traveling man asked Johnson Johns m if U order mail-order competition competition- bothered him much Competition Why Wh Im I'm the competition In this community comma comma- he said I dont don't give the folks round here a chance to look at a order mall catalogue Ive I've heard hearda a good deal of how the order mail-order catalogue is the the Bible of the farmer farm farm- er and I heard a story the other day of a baby that was born in a farm home bome and a visitor asked the tho girl where the new baby came from Hl she said we picked it from the catalogue That didn't happen near near here My son is the head of our women's wear to depart depart- ment He goes to New York twice a year and buys in the same market the order mail houses buy in and h he h. buys with better taste and knowledge of the needs here and we can sell just as low We get the finest pictures of our garments Lh that t artists can mal make G and print them in our mont monthly ly Store News We are not afraid of any order mail-order house houDe housey o th y Ln ii fact fact act we do a big order mail r business ourselves We get I from twenty-five twenty to fifty orders by mail a aday aday day from as far away as sixty and ard seventy enty miles The order mail ness has never worried meI meI me I 1 never permit anyone 1 in 1 this store to criticize anyone for buying from order mail houses A farmer has just as much right to ord order r from Chicago as I have to buy in Now York If It I can buy goods In n Nebraska as cheap and as good as 1 I I Ican can elsewhere I buy here otherwise 1 I go outside I buy where I can buyL bayL buy bay L best The farmer has the same ame right Any merchant who questions that right has more nerve than I. I I I never run down a order mail house nor its goods The big mail mail- order houses are legitimate and on the square and their merchandise Is just as good as as mine The Tho only thing they do In a business way that Is not right Is la when they pre pre- tend that they can undersell me mo 1 In Inthis Inthis this territory They cant can't do itI it r I never put up the plea that because because because be be- cause cause I live here ana pay taxes herthe hero her the people ought to buy from Crom me menor nor that they ought to buy li h u their thel I home town and nowhere else I If I used that argument then tha the little storekeepers in all the towns roan round here could use it against me and urge their people to buy at home horn and not go to Johnsons There Is a great chance for smalltown small town merchants if they'll only gc- gc gat t It out of their heads that it Is the be e duty of people to buy from them hem a and d then forget that there is a mail mait- order house on earth and go it rt rf tf- tf fter f- f ter the business The They must make their stores attractive You wont won't find better fixtures nor a brIghter brighte store in America than this is and our clerks are just as bright We employ sixty of them Some have been with us thirty years and know our business as well as we doThe doThe do The Tho spirit of this store Is one o of friendliness of good cheer and fairness fairness fairness fair fair- ness and very important too it Isa is isa isa a spirit of oC love of the beautiful We Wo express that In every way we can in inand inand inand and around the store store and and it all pays and pays big Johnsons Johnson's Store News is a full- full sized newspaper It has never less than four pages and often eight and twelve Its editor knows how to write and how to make muke It interesting InterestIng InterestIng Interest- Interest Ing and how to advertise Its middle middle middle mid mid- dle pages are filled with advertisements advertisements advertisements advertise advertise- ments of oC goods for sale In Jonhson's store all well illustrated and described do- do scribed Its outside pages are filled with interesting news of town and count county with advance notices of weddings church events concerts dances and shows in the auditorium There are enough jokes and funny pictures to amuse the family and farmers say they like it better than any amp weekly paper It advocates good roads plans for community uplift and service and the bringing of conventions conventions con- con conI I and meetings to the town It t tells how to do more efficient work on the farm and In the farm Carm 1 home Throughout the war it printed news and pictures of the boys who went to war printed letters leters letters let- let ers from Crom them took part In all the Liberty loan campaigns and even ven printed news of rival merchants I tell the boys not to be stingy nor hidebound Johnson says It doesn't pa pay and besides it isn't right ight If IC a man opens a new store In n this town or if the daughter of oC a arival arival rival Ival merchant gets married it is news our readers are entitled to anI and ando so o we put it in the Store News That gives ives us a great reputation for fairness fairess fairness fair- fair ness ess too and I believe In it Our fortunes are all bound up together ther therIn In n this little town and county count and we ought to pull together This store paper and the advertising advertising adver- adver I do in the weekly papers inthe In Inthe the he county cost me one thousand dollars ollars a month but it is th the b best st investment as a business getter that I make We mail that paper out 10 to fifteen thousand addresses each month We use a mailing machine of oC f course That's a lot of advertisIng advertising advertis- advertis Ing ng matter maller going out I believe in it t. t The only place I know of where money is made nade without advertising I Is Is s In the the United States mint You notice otice that we dont don't give all the space pace to shouting about our goods and nd about low and we never scold cold nor find fault We make this paper so interesting ing that it will bewelcome be bewelcome bewelcome welcome in every farm home A farmer from away over near another town iown came in here last week and said sad Johnson tIle the folks who buy from you have to pay for these show how windows these advertisements advertisements advertisements advertise advertise- ments and the paper you print this his elevator and these signs and andine tine fine plate glass and nickel fixtures and mahogany show cases that all has to be tacked onto the price of the he goods Isn't that so No Groceries or Furniture lAll All right you do have to pay for or all that I said But look here You look at our prices and you'll find that we sell as low and in many cases lower than the fellow you Sou are talking about who never advertises and who keeps a drab store You ask me how I can do that Its It's In volume of business By advertising to o fifteen thousand people or more morea a month I bring fifty times as many persons In here to buy as go into his store therefore I sell fifty times as much merchandise If It I sell fifty pairs of or shoes to his one I can sell salt for less profit on each pair than he and yet make more in the year than he Its It's better for me to ret iet two per cent profit ten times a year ear than for him to get ten per cent pro profit once a year because that enables meto me meto meto to buy In greater quantities 3 and therefore for less and it enables mo to sell for less and to have fresh I stocks all the time See Oh I never thought of that s said ld he And I dont don't believe the average country country storekeeper has figured figured fig fig- it out either A traveling representative of a grocery house tried to get Johnson JohnsonI I to put in a line of groceries No ho he answered that would hurt th the theother theother other grocers who are established here and they're all friends of ot this store The They have to live For th the same reason he wont won't sell furniture nor Dor heavy hardware nor automobile parts other stores in town do tha that When he found that the local paper paper paper pa pa- per hadn't the kind of type h Ike he wanted for his Store News h he bought It and gave It to the printer printe to use and he buys or has made t to order thousands of newspaper cuta cuts cut a year Why dont don't you put In a printing plant of your own 1 he was asked What and run the other fellow out No sir He gives credit and he has hag DO accounts on his books but each customer has to pay the first of each month He sends a statement then and if it the money does not coma com th the customer hears about it In five years he has not lost a dollar on acI account account account ac ac- count of a farmer and his total tola I losses Josses from credit accounts will no not average one half of one per cent o othe of the total business Selling What That Farmers Want Johnsons Johnson's Bargain Basement i is celebrated throughout Southwest Nebraska There are seven sand different articles in it each kind labeled with its name and ald its price In holiday times one forty salespersons are busy in this base base- ment Last year fifty thousand dollars dollars' dollars dollars' dollars dollars' dol dol- lars' lars worth of goods was soM sohl In the basement This department alone has thousands of newspaper cuts and gets out a separate sheet once a month which goes folded folded folded fold fold- ed inside the Store News Johnson expects to sell half a milion million million mil- mil lion ion dollars' dollars worth of goods this ear year If It he does that it probably will vill be the greatest business done by any general merchandising store In u a town of that size in this coun- coun try ry If other stores exceed those sales ales they will be selling seIlIng groceries hardware furniture lime cement and the like none of which is sold by Johnson I Johnson has clear ideas about the he reasons for his success There is no about it he says We know the needs of this community I was brought up in the time old-time school chool of merchandising but I realized realized re- re long ago that a great change has as come into the farm life liCe of this Western country Farmers are pros- pros erous They have money They read ead the bIg bg Eastern magazines they know what the people In the clUes cities ar are arc wearing and they want to Wear ear just as good clothes They know now what sort of goods are being used sed In the homes of the best peole people people peo- peo le and they want all of that for or or themselves Why shouldn't they have lave the best They want to buy It In a big store tore too and the more that store and stocks are like the big city stores tores and their merchandise the theetter better etter they like it The people here know enow we are good merchants they h have ave ve known us personally a good many years and they know they can cun depend on on my word Spoken n or lr printed Its It's all the same same same-I I stand back ack of it And they come to o us in full ull confidence knowing I will treat them hem right I think too many ninny country storekeepers store store- l keepers spend their time scheming to o see how much they can get out of the he farmer and how v little they will wm have lave to give back Editors Editor's Note This Note This is the first article of a series by Mr Macd Macdonald on n Big Dig Country bier ha t. t The he second will be published in iu an early earl Issue o 0 PAT G g rr fi r S d' d 9 A 1 s r Pat McLane cf Pennsylvania Is a railroad engineer by profession and the he fact that he is a member of the Sixty sixth congress is explained by reason of a leave of absence from his regular job The Scranton Democrats Democrat sought to Indorse Representative Farr the tho locomotive engineer objected and won a victory by votes |