Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-07-03
QUESTION or FAIR PLAY.
Il Psys Druggist = Give Customers what
rhsy want.

Nearly every one who sets out to puy
any advertised medicine at the drug store
knows what 1t is to be met with the as-
sertion. mo, we haven't that, but here's
something else just as good" Perhaps
the remark is added: I'VE put 1t up our
selves, or Its a larger bottle for the
money. .
What the druggist says usually sounds
ouite reasonable, and as often az no. the
purchaser goes out of the store with a
packa gea of something different from what
was asked for.
II this only happens once or twice 1t
doesn't seem to amount to much, but
when a dozen people in one day go TO the
same store and ask for a bottle of Jones
Tonic" for example. and are given some
thing else, and when this result Is multi
piled by a thousand druggists in a thou
sand different towns, the proprletors OF
Jones Tonic naturally get to feel pref
ty mad about it.
They argue in this way: I'VE spend "A
great deal of money advertising in the
papers to let people know about our ton
ic' When they go to a drug store 10 get
it, It is our advertising which sends them,
and it is no more than fair to us that the
druggist sell them what they ask for.
Some druggists agree with this view,
and some do not One DRUGGISTS says:
business is business that's all. Thefe
no earthly reason why ! shouldn't sell p
preparation which | put up myself IN
preference to selling one that is adver-
tised in the papers. / know what n.li-e Is
made Of and think it is just as good, u
not better. Why shouldn't | say so, ana
sell it, if l CAM"
Many millions of dollars are spent every
year in the business of making ana sell
ing proprietary medicines, and IN spite
Of frequent skeptical sneers, some q
these remedies are originated ana pre-,
pared by experienced physicians AM.
skillful chemists of genuine scholarly az
taisir.lents. Seine druggists VINO possess
I, comparatively small capital are inclined
to look upon a proprietary concern - 4
it were a big trust or powerful enemy 70
be resisted, but. on the other hand an II
creasing number of druggists take tne
view that a widely advertised proprietary
remedy of real merit is powerful any oi
the retail druggist.
One druggist who was interVleweu oii
the subject said: II always sell peopAe
exactly what they ask for II | nave ne;
When any one simply asks for good
tonic or a good cough medicine or any
thing in that general way, II II Is q fhlhs
/ put up myself. ! sell them that II can,
hut if any one asks specially for Jones
sell him Jones' ana nothing else l
know that people don't like to be
switched off on to different tnins lro n
something else. but they're not sausiled'
and they go somewhere else another time,
and you lose part of their trade. l know
this is So for I've wa ht ,l W for K what
people ask for doesn't pay the druSglst
in the long run.
This sounds like fair play and good
business sense combined. The druggist
has a perfectly legal right to sell the
gools he favors or which pay him the
best profit; yet if the advertising Oh a
certain proprietary article Is the dlect
means of sending a customer TO his store,
ii seems only right, morally speaking;
for him to sell the article asked LOT, anu
the customer, by insisting on getting me