Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-04-04
FuaN.IuRe MAKING.

An InteFview with One OF Chicaxo's Lad
Ing Manufacturers
The furniture made in Chicago is
designed. of course, to catch the
trade of the masses. and. conse-
quently, it is of the medium and lower
grades The average citizen here
does not want expensive goods. As q
| rule people are buying better furni-
ture, but still not more than five per
cent of the people now buy any thing
that may be called expensive. Prob
ably $35 is about the average price
paid for a bedroom suite of three pieces.
and SIS would not be far out OF the
way for the average price paid for
parlor suites of six pieces. These fig
ures, you see, are moderate. and since
manufacturers in putting their goods
upon the market cater to popular de-
mands, prices tell a pretty straight
story of the circumstances OF the peo-
pie
The great trouble with our furniture
is not that it is machine made-aH the
goods on the trade are, for that mat
ter, and the prejudices against ma
chine work is fast disappearing. but
because the lumber is not thoroughly
seasoned before being made up. The
green lumber is showed into kiln for
day and is then put on the market as
chairs, tables and the like. A hundred
green logs to-day are transformed into
a thousand bedroom suites tomorrow.
Shrinking, warping and cracking are
inevitable, and the durability of the
furniture is consequently impaired.
So far as machines are concerned,
many of them do work equal to first
class hand work, and at vastly lower
cost
The profits of the furniture bust
ness are hard to estimate. On high
class goods the margin of profit is fair
since the influence of competition Is
not strong in articles of fine quality.
On all poorer goods, however. the
dealers gain is pretty well minimized-
Net profits would not run more than
from five per cent. to ten per cent.
Our great drawback is the cost of our
help. Shipping clerks. packers, labor
ers and the like are needed in great
number. Our stock is bulky and
easily damaged and inadequate help
would be disastrous. Further, people
usually have distorted notions about
the real magnitude or value of furni-
ture. We require a good deal of room
and people are prone to measure the
value of stock by the premises it oc-
cupies. Why, Marshall Field could
have more stock, on the basis of actual
cost, on a single thirty foot shelf than
almost any furniture dealer In the city
has in his whole establishments The
value of the average storekeeper's
stock in our business is far below what
general report makes it.
This bulkiness and awkwardness of
furniture. you can readily understand,
can not help but white down our
profits. Rentals come enormously
high. There are bedroom sets, for in
stance. sold at so low a gross profit
that the help required to handle them
practically leaves no. profit at all
We practically sell nothing that
we do not have to send one
Or two men to deliver. To il
lustrate the difference between differ
ent kinds of business, a dry-goods clerk
will sell a lace handkerchief for $1S or
$40, and the lady will take it home in
her satchel; we sell bureau Or side
board for the same price. but at low
er rate of profit. and have to send it
out by a couple of men and a horse and
wagon. Then the annoyance and the
loss of time resulting from trivial mat
tiers is often enormous. have had to
send several miles, for example, to
saw off an inch from a bed-slat, which
the servant girl might have cut off
with the meat-saw. The mere waste
of time in this case probably took off
most Of the profit of the sale. and this
case is only one of scores I might men
tion.@ChicagO News.