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Show RETAIL SALES GOOD SAYS BABSON Advises Newspaper Advertising Welsly Kills, Mass. April 2 0, 1923: Roger V. Babson, who has recently re-cently been checking figures on the1 retail trade of the country has today! Issued a preliminary statement. According to his analysis, retail trade averaging all sections of the country Is again back to normal. "Some sections are still behind the good years of 1919 and 192 0," says Mr. Babson, "but many other sections sec-tions are ahead. Retail trade was the last to feel the effect of the depression. de-pression. When a slack business hits a section the financial interests feel it first; the manufacturing and farming interests feel it second; the jobbers and wholesalers feel dt third arl finally v'the (retailers Qiear 1;. Hence, altho retail trade continue good long after Wall Street is blue it does not come back again until sometime after Wall Street comes back. There are. of course, a few- exceptions to this general xule. The profits of firms, like Tiffany, the jeweler, who sells largely to the very wealthy, follow closj to stock market movements; but 95 per cent of the retail firms lag a year or more behind. be-hind. "The best mail trade today is in the, industrial cities ot tha ilist. Where two years ago, mills and factories fac-tories were shut down, they are now-working now-working overtime. Cities like Pitts-burr?, Pitts-burr?, which a year ago were working work-ing only 60 per cent of their capacity, capac-ity, are now back to nearly 100 recent. re-cent. Akron, which three years a?o had the highest percentage of unemployment un-employment in the country, is now advertising for men. ; Detroit is again back to normal and the volume of retail trade in most of these cilie-is cilie-is equal to or greater than it has ever been. Of course, this does not mean that profits are as larpe. The public Is showing more discrimination dis-crimination in its purchases and Is shopping about more. The volume of retail business, however, is bark to' normal in these cities. "Any concern In an industrial city which is not doing a normal business busi-ness today should clean house and ascertain wherein the difficulty lies. Cities which are about to enjoy wae advances are In an especially favorable favor-able position. The retailers of tht-3e cities should do the best business busi-ness durir.i? 1923 they ever have done. The mill cities of New Kng-land Kng-land are In this class. "The; farming communities may not be back to normal altho statisticians statisti-cians differ greatly as to what normal. If na call iorm.i.1 tl.r few boom years of the war, then the farming sections are still below anil may be for many years to conio. I, however, we consider normal as the avt-rag,; for )th pa tw'en'y years and in addition allow a proper amount for growth, we Will find that the retail trade of most farm sections Is now back to normal or will be shortly. Therefore. I HI! javiEM ui si SlIIHV""! 11M(1 tne retailer who U not now doing a normal business. He either is a poor buy-.-r or a poor salesman. Klcher he is mixed np in some outside out-side enterprise arid is not attending to business, or else is not posted 'as 'to fun larnental conditions. There i:i a "hole in his ecoiiiinics" some where and It Is up to lilm to find It. "'.luring the next few months local merchants should advertise. National Nat-ional manufacturers are utilizing the Krit power of advertising In the distribution of their products. The Eiicressful department stores a.re aiso I, sins; larse siace In the nnwspapcrs; but tho smaller retailor has yet Tailed Tail-ed to advert I.se as he should. Perhaps Per-haps this 1s hy ho Is urn al' - one ,. l.ll TVw.ro nilTI-lV Is SOMI" . OlINIVl I.IL.II. ' J re.ison why the people flock to one merchant and pass by another. Statistics certainly lii'll'-ate that, the rex-ton Is (ios-ly couriered with the advertising. Let tne also take this owaslon to urge retailers to use the i,cwspaper In a dli:nlfl"l way rattier than aM.crnpilni; to use bill boards and novel'y contrivances. Ptirliitr :e ant two InonMis I have inotcre.l ( oi.-.idc.rnbly throughout ilirfcr'-nl . Hons of the ronnlry. At nlniont every cross roa I Is ome suit or a 'yAi'.u, n windmill or fmiiiet nin ; i ,, cold to boiii bank or merchant win thouKht i- hsd discovered a cIhmP rr or more effective ni'-thoil of no-vertUinn no-vertUinn thsn bin nowiipaper orf-Tid. As a matter of fad. lie unconscious y iisriKiires the hlKhways. e,lan-y, e,lan-y, r, life and mak-s cncm insl'-ad rrienils. Men handl.ini: Is n pro f,.,.,., nnd fhould be treated In n dUultleJ y. M"r"v'-' '"w banks can adopt such cheap appearing appear-ing methods of publicity is beyond the comprehension of most business Yet I uulierstaud the Uemptation, having once fallen for outdoor advertising ad-vertising myself much against the advice of the Guudlach Adve-.-t'sing Agency -which haudlies our copy." Mr. Babson added a word of cheer to those who fear the chain stor' . "Instead of worrying about chain stores,"says he, "the independent re-retailer re-retailer should copy their good features feat-ures and avoid! their pitfalls. The chain stores are revolutionizing retailing. re-tailing. They are Introducing many good features from which every retailer re-tailer should profjvt. '( But jchain stores have many troubles ahead. When their employes organize into a labor union as is inevitable with such big units then the independent merchant will again have a (great opportunity. op-portunity. I, however do believe ! that it would be wis for independent independ-ent merchants to get together more among themselves and form small chains which they themselves can control. Personally I should not want to struggle with one lone grocery gro-cery store; but had just as soon have a group of a dozen grocery stores. "General business," concluded. Mr. Babson, "is good. The Bapsonchart stands today at 3 per cent above normal compared with 16 per cent below normal a year ago." |