OCR Text |
Show THE HOME TOWN By XELS 1MRLING Home Trading Versus the Mail Order House Gambling Instinct Largely Blamed for Fascination of Mail Order Or-der Business The average western town depends de-pends upon the agricultural resources re-sources of the country in its immediate im-mediate vicinity for its support. It Is but little more than a local trading trad-ing point. It has no jobbing houses, no manufacturing with which to bring money into the community from a large trade territory. Such a town would soon become a desert-1 ed village were the stores to close their doors and quit business. Ev ery cent of every dollar sent to the mall order houses of the great trade centers, Is forever lost to the community com-munity from which it comes; going into channels that carry far and away from the locality where its equivalent in wealth from the soil was created. If In any instance money was saved sav-ed In sending away for goods that can be bought at home, there would not be so much room for criticism. So often the item of freight is not considered. Quality is not as carefully care-fully taken Into account as it should be. Service is not given its due credit. You must know the weights and freight rates to make a true estimate of costs. You must be a Rood judge of all sorts of merchandise merchan-dise to be able to make dependable comparisons of quality. "The proof of the pudding Is in the eating thereof," there-of," and so the proof of a great deal of merchandise Is in its wearing qualities. Many a fine looking piece of furniture is a shoddy piece of goods. When you send away for anything any-thing you pay in advance. You go to the depot for the shipment and do your own hauling. You cannot make an Immediate exchange if the goods are unsatisfactory. You cannot can-not telephone the last minute for something you have forgotten. The safe plan is to buy of the dealers at home, , in whom you can place confidence. con-fidence. . Are you giving your town your moral and financial support? "If. -America discourages the town, she will kill the nation." .Many argue that in time, practi-eally practi-eally all merchandising will be done by mail from a few great cities. They contend that this is the economical econ-omical method. Some Socialists, who believe in the three fundamental fundamen-tal principles of Karl Marx social-Ism, social-Ism, take this view of the trend of the times. The three fundamentals referred to are rent is wrong, interest in-terest in wrong, profit is wrong. Well, in-as-much as the large city department stores and mail order houses are private enterprises, are not owned by the people, are not a : part of a great commercial system In a cooperative commonwealth, why not keep our rents and profits at home? The habitual mail order house - -. patron Is too often like the gambler, ha is forever talking of his winning, but says nothing of his losses. The one bargain offsets a hundred dis-'aDDOlntments. dis-'aDDOlntments. The lost time, the unsatisfactory goods, the article he had to return at his own expense, the repairs on shipments damaged in transit, the patching he has done, the unlooked for heavy freight 1 charges, are all, with an egort for j gotten In contemplation of the one article that is just as good, or perhaps per-haps a trifle better than he really expected It to be. Like the man who thinks he Is benefitted by the panacea bought from the street corner cor-ner machine vendor, he is surprised to find he got something for his money. The gambling instinct is an inherent in-herent one with everybody and this very fact accounts for the fascination, fascina-tion, that mall order buying has for most folks. That the farmers are the most liberal patrons of the outside concerns, con-cerns, Is a prevailent and mistaken Idea. Merchants often do not practice prac-tice what they preach. The grocery sends away for dry goods, while the hardwarde dealer sends away for furniture and the wives of both belong be-long to some soap club. As I have stated before the average aver-age western town depends upon its retail stores for its real life. It is primarily a trading point. Cripple the retail business and you cripple the community. Destroy the stores and you destroy the town. There are three classes of people given to patronizing the home merchants mer-chants only when necessity demands. There is the fellow who takes a pride in saying that-he is independent independ-ent of the.', town. He holds mortgages mort-gages on:gpod farms and owns some bank stoik. : He buys most of his goods away from home and is the star kicker. He has very little property in the town, but is against every progressive step, fearing thai his taxes will be increased one-tenth of one per cent. He is. tired and retired. The community will not have lost much when he is interred. Then there are most of those people peo-ple who buy most of their goods by mail because they have an idea that by so doing they are displaying a laudable independence and are transacting trans-acting real business. To write ont an order, to read the letter acknowledging acknow-ledging receipt, to open the package and to check the goods with the bill, gives them a feeling of importance. With them, imaginary economy is not the main inducement. They love to pore over the catalogs and discuss the different items. These cleverly designed, illustrated and description illuminated books have for them a strange fascination. There is still another class of mail order buyers the folks who have a hard time making both ends meet. They save money a small part of the time, but keep deceiving themselves that they do all of the time. These latter folks are often made incurable catalog buyers by some unscrupulous store keeper, by discourteous dis-courteous clerks, by coming into contact with merchants who are not business men. Every place has the dealer who will not compare his prices and merchandise with those of the catalog houses. The mention of a catalog house throws him in a tantrum. This sort of a merchant is a "weak sister." Any dealer can hold his own with 'these mail order concerns, if he will but have sense enough to know that he must meet competition with quality qual-ity price and service. In my next article I will discuss these three things and especially service. |