The record-union., 1892-06-27
TOO Much PROFIT.
What a J-Street Merchant Says About
San Francisco.
The Recital of a Story About Metro
politan Methods Opens His
Eyes Very Wide.

''I heard little story the other evening
as l was coming over on the Oakland
boat" said lJstreet merchant to a
REcoRD-UNIoN reporter yesterday,
which settled in my mind what the
trouble with San Francisco is. You
know the merchants down there are
making fight against the railroads,
charging that the depression in business
IN That city is due to high freight rates.
Of course L knew that we pay the same
freight rates that the San Francisco mer-
chants do, that we sell goods cheaper
than they do, and yet we have no COM
paint to make, either about freight rates
or business depression. / also had an
idea that the difficulty with the San Fran
cisco merchants was their determination
to keep up their large margin of profits.
This no doubt accounts largely for the
dull times at the metropolis, but the story
i refer to, which was told to me by a man
whom l know tells the truth, shows that
there is another reason, which / had not
thought of before, and that is that the
san francisco merchant does not protect
his customers.
"'You have heard about the kick that
the San Francisco wholesalers who deal
IN barbed wire have been making about
railroad freight rates from the East,
haven't your asked my friend.
Yes; l have read something about
it, l replied.
Well said he, I will tell you some
thing about that which will make you
laugh. You know L have been dealing in
barbed wire for a number of years.
bought of a wholesale merchant in San
francisco, and | had good trade among
farmers in various parts of the State
he I Iicnnuara1 hot bn
wholesale man was selling single spools
of wire to some of my customers for the
same price he sold to me by the hundred
went to him and asked him what he
meant by doing that kind of business
lie replied that he was in business to sell
goods, and that it would take fourteen
clerks TO keep track of who buyers were
SO that he sold to everyone who came at
the same price. | told him that was all
right, if he thought that was the way to
do business, but that he would never sell
any more to me.
- so | concluded to get my barbed wire
direct from the manufacturer in the East,
and had it shipped to me in carload lots.
then found that the man I had been
buying of had been making % per cent.
on the wire he sold me. / concluded to be
satisfied with Is per cent, and so l COM
menced at once to undersell him 10 per
cent, and it did not take me long to have
large number OF his best customers,
"'Pretty soon he came around to my
place and wanted to know what [ meant
10y taking his customers away by under
selling him. l told him that l did not
pay any attention to who came to buy,
and that / Y, as in business to sell goods.
1t would take fourteen clerks to keep
track OF who his former customers We're
The result is that | have got the best
barbed wire trade in San Francisco.
make money and have no complaint to
make about freight rates, while my GUS
toners get their wire for ten per cent
less than they did before. So you see
why the San Francisco merchants keep
shouting about railroad freight rates SO
that the farmers and consumers will not
drop on" their own little game. This is
the whole secret of it,
This recital" said the J-street mer-
chant, opened my eyes considerably
wider, L assure you, in regard TO the
noise the San Francisco merchants make
about depression in trade. The fact is we
sell almost everything cheaper here in
Sacramento than they do in San Fran
cisco, and the merchants down there
have got to learn that they cannot keep
on making the big margin of profit they
have in the past"