The herald., 1897-08-14
BARGAIN WEEK
A Unique Idea Suggested by a Los
Angeles Business Man

A Los Angeles business man, in COM
munication to the Times, advocates a
Los Angeles bargain week" and out
lines his plan as follows:
This plan is based upon sound busi-
ness principles. / believe this is the
most favored month in the year in
which to put such a plan in operation.
The reasons for this belief are these:
Frst-From the best information to be
had from the most reliable sources the
people in the towns which surround Los
Angeles are now in more prosperous
condition and have more ready money
than for several years. These people
have been very small buyers for the
past two or three years, and are now
ready to spend their money for necessi-
ties, and many luxuries, which they de-
MED themselves through closer times.
Second-The last of August and the
first of September is quiet period with
merchants. A more general effort is
made to force goods at this time than
during any other period of the year.
This naturally results in general cutting
of prices. which is not an injury, as may
be supposed, but benefit to the mer
chant, as it enables him to close out the
odds and ends and stragglers of his sum
mer stock, and to open his fall cam
paign with shelves of clean, fresh mer
chandise. The two facts noted above
are the most important factors in the
plan which l now consider for the bet,
terment of trade at this time.
The plan formulated is as follows:
Let merchants join hands in grand
series of special bargain sales to cover
the period of week, say the last week
in August, each store offering, in its
own way special inducements in the
form of prices and other store attrac-
tions-inducements so strong that no
man or woman with dollar in hand can
resist them. For illustration, let US call
the special week Los Angeles Bargain
Week" Special sales and bargains have
a greater crowd bringing power, as far
as women are concerned, than any other
proposition on earth. A week of this
kind, rightly advertised throughout this
section, and backed up by goods and
prices, as I feel sure our leading mer-
chants would back it up, would bring
thousands of people to the city, people
who would come with the EXPIRE as pur-
pose of buying something, and that is
the kind of people our merchants want
| to see. l believe that our merchants
would offer many side attractions, such
as giving their out-of-town customers
dinners at a good restaurant, free trips
| to the beach, and, in many cases, paying
| the full amount Of the fare if a certain
amount of merchandise were purchased.
| These details, of course, would have to
| be elaborated further than 1 care to go
| into the matter in communication of
| this kind.
| The first move in this campaign
would be to enlist the interest and en-
| thusiasm of the chamber of commerce
and Merchants association in the cause.
With these two bodies at work to inter-
| est the railroads in making special ex-
cursion rates from all Southern Califor-
MIA towns with tickets good to return
any time during the week, and with
proper advertising, there can be no rea-
sonable doubt but thousands and thou
sands of people would be brought into
Los Angeles and that our merchants
sales would be increased for the week
by many thousands of dollars
AS far as am able to estimate at this
time, a fund of abut $500 would be re-
uuired to advertise Los Angeles Bar
gain Week and bargain-week excur-
sions in the various towns, in a genera
way, by means of the local country pa
pers and by posters and flyers. Con-
sidering the immense results that tht
plan seems likely to bring forth, $50t
Las an advertising fund is mere baga-