Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-28
A Study Of Scheme That is New to
Washington.
TEE SIMPLICITY OF SMOOrHHES'
How Merchants Secure Cash Gus
TONERS and Then Lose,
INSTRUMENTATION


\ in collecting something, Of course. Years
| ago, when merchants regarded little
printed card, bearing their names. the
character Of their pursuits and their places
of business, as the sine qua non Of intelli-
gent advertising, the collection Of such an
nouncements became a mania. The post
age stamp craze followed; then the cigar
cite picture insanity held sway, to be sue
ceeded by an equally srdent demand for
cigarette flags and cigarette buttons The
| present direction taken by the members of
| the population subject to these attacks is
| toward the trading stamp"
The trading stamp wss introduced into
Washington five or six weeks ago. The
| idea of it originated in Jackson, Mich,
about three years ago. Sperry & Hutchin-
son of New York are the proprietors OF
| the enterprise. The scheme briefly is this:
A merchant who uses the stamp gives one
for each cash purchase of 10 cents worth
| of goods. The purchaser saving the stamps
thus received takes them, when his pur-
| chases amount to 800 and when his stamps
show this, to a store maintained in the
same town, and thers exchanges them for
| a premium. A visit to the store in this
city by a Star reporter discovered brand
new stock of articles, any one of which is
at the disposal of any person who brings
| in trading stamps representing purchases
amounting to SO. There were musical in
| struments. silver-plated ware, knives.
spoons, china articles, clocks, tables, rock
| ing chairs, lamp stands and lamps. carpet
sweepers and host of other things. The
| retail value of such articles would prob
ably be about, on the average, 81. The
cost price was probably $2I5. Mr.. Sperry
OF the firm Of Sperry & Hutchinson was
| there. ANY person coming in here, he
said to the reporter. with stamps show
ing $50 worth Of purchases, can select and
| become the possessor of any article you
see in. this place. except that sewing ma
chine. a gramophone and a bicycle, these
articles requiring additional books
1.-THE merchants using these trading
stamps give virtually ) per cent of their
business for the privilege, do they not?'
asked the reporter.
mot at ALL replied Mr.. Sperry. These
stamps are not given out except to pur
chasers who pay cash for their goods, and
a very great number Of these do not take
them at ALL
TT is a very good thing for merchants"
many cash customers do not take the
stamps Then, again, not more than one
in ten Of those who do take them ever keep
them together until they get the number
necessary to get a premium in the shape
of the articles we offer, Of which you can
see the excellent character"
mot one in ten ever keep the stamps
together until they get the number neces-
sary to get Premium Thoughtful con-
sideration of this condition forced the con-
clusion that when something for moth
ing was adopted as the motto Of this con-
Germ an intelligence Of a high order was
working. The unsuspecting merchant sup
plies very substantial something and
the Trading Stamp Company what is prac-
tically very alluring nothing.
Taken altogether the plan is about as
clever one for appropriating to an alien
concern the profits of Washington mer-
chants as could well be imagined.
Recognizing the avidity with which a
merchant properly seeks a cash trade, the
more than equal eagerness with which the
general public grasps the opportunity to
get something for nothing, and, most i'm
mankind to collect" something which
when sufficiently COLLECTED" means prize,
the ground is prepared for magnificent
financial harvest in which the Washington
merchant pays the bills. the Washington
public does the work, and the Trading
Stamp Company gets the product.
For no fact is better established than
that in schemes of this kind a very small
percentage of those starting out to "col-
lect" certain amount or number of a
certain thing ever perseveres until the nee
essary sum or number is reached. On
the basis of these shrewd conclusions the
trading stamp was built into being
The modus operandi is simple mer-
chant contracts with the Trading Stamp
Company that he will issue stamps to such
OF his cash customers as ask for them, one
for each 1O-cent purchase, and will pay the
Trading Stamp Company each week for
such stamps as he has issued at the rate of
~ pei SAouSdhu, TSSdTQleSS Oh WnetnGr or
not they are finally redeemed by the com
pany, the latter having the entire benefit
of the enormous odds that they will never
be presented at its store for redemption.
These odds, it will be noted, were stated
by Mr.. Sperry to The Star reporter to be
ten to one-that is. that only one out of
ten stamps was presented for final re-
demptfon. or, to state it still more forcibly
that for each customer who received from
the Trading Stamp Company an article of
an average retail value of, say, 81, the I'M
wary Washington merchant paid that con-
Germ approximately $50.
Truly this is heads I win, tails YOU
lose, for If every stamp that the mer-
cnant issued was redeemed the Trading
Stamp Company has a handsome profit in
DONG a retail business at a large profit,
business In which they are paid for
their goods long before they are deIiy-
cred. but when is added to this the enor-
nous percentage Of unredeemed stamps, a
vision of wealth. before which that of
Croesus pales into insigniicance, must rise
Deiore the enraptured eyes of its owners
BUT to the merchant who has entered into
tne scheme the matter assumes a much
more serious aspect
In the first plooo r.o,