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Show LOCAL DEALERS 00 BUSINESS IN OPEN Know They Must Face the Music if Their Customers Are Displeased. MEET PATRONS FACE TO FACE Mail Order Men Prefer to Sell at Long Distance Rather Than Deal With People In Their Own Cities. (Cops'right.) One of the stock excuses of the man who orders goods from a mail order house is that there are many things that he wants that the local merchants mer-chants do not curry in stock, and that it is necessary for him to send away from town to get them. This explanation may be all right on the theory .that a poor excuse is better than none, but it fails to pass muster when it is subjected to a little lit-tle scrutiny. Ask the man who offers this as an excuse for his dealings with the mail irder man why he does not go to the local merchant and ask him to order the articles desired It they are not to he found in the merchant's stock. The merchant will very gladly do this, and the merchant and customer will both profit. The merchant can sell you whatever you desire at ns low a price as the mail order house can make you on goods the same quality and he can make a small profit. The customer will profit from the transaction, because he will be dealing deal-ing with a merchant who stands back of the goods that he sells, and who is easily accessible in case the articles arti-cles nurchased do not nrove to be all that the customer had expected. Give Home Merchant Preference. Why not try this plan the next time you need something which you cannot can-not find in any of your home stores? The merchant in the average sized town cannot carry, in stock everything that all of the people in his town may want at all times. It would require a capital many times larger than the average merchant can command to do this, but he does the best he can. He ordinarily does carry in stock at all times many things for which there is no general demand, in order that he may meet the ' needs of his customers to the greatest possible degree, but there is a limit to his purchasing ability. abil-ity. He is always ready and willing, however,, to make every effort to meet the demands of the community. Why not, then, give him the preference over the far-distant mail order man if you must have something which is not to be found in .the local stores? He will do the business in a satisfactory manner, give you as quick If not quicker quick-er service and' more satisfactory treatment, treat-ment, and the chances are that he will give you better values for the money. Finally, whatever profit is to be made off the transaction will stay at home and do its bit toward making the merchant and his town and, incidentally, inci-dentally, yourself, more prosperous. No business can be transacted as satisfactorily at long range ns it can when the two parties to the transao tion meet face to face. The only o'x-ception o'x-ception to this, rule is' In the case-of the mail order man himself, who can transact his business with greater success suc-cess to himself at long distance than he could if he had to meet his customers cus-tomers face to face. That is the reason that he does business by mail instead of selling to the people in his own city. If the goods which the mall order or-der man advertises in his alluring catalogues cat-alogues were the bargains that he represents rep-resents them to be, ho would not have to go outside of the confines of his own city to sell all the goods he could possibly obtain. But the average mail order house not only does not make any effort to sell goods in its own city, but will not sell to anyone residing within the city limits. The mail order man does not want to meet his customers cus-tomers face to face, lie can do business busi-ness better so far as he Is concerned If his customer is some hundreds of miles away from his office. Does Business in Open. . The man -who sells goods over the counter, on the other hand, does business busi-ness In the open. He cannot hido lie-hind lie-hind a corporate name or talk to a displeased dis-pleased customer from behind the locked doors of a private-office. lie knows that he must face the music In case lie is a party to any transaction that won't stand the light of day. lie knows that he must satisfy every customer cus-tomer with whom he may be dealing or be will lose not only that customer but probably others who will soon know all the facts if he docs not do the square thing by any one of bis patrons. There is no reason In the world for any person to send bis money to a mall order bouse because he cannot find the article he wauls In his local store. The local merchant Is Jn liusi-ncss liusi-ncss for the very purpose of getting you what you want. He has the information infor-mation that will enable him to gel what you want and to get it as quickly quick-ly as you could get it from a mall order or-der bouse. It is only fair to him to ; give 111 in the chance to make such j profit as any dealer would make off the ! transaction and it is only fair to yotir-; yotir-; self to keep that profit at home rather ' than to send it away to some far dis-: dis-: tant city from which It will never re-j re-j turn. t J ' " |