The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-03
AN ANTI-JOBBER VICTORY.
SUCCESSFUL SALE OF GOODS WITH
OUT THE AID or MIDDLEMEN.

The Jobbers Said Business Suicide " When
Prominent House Said They'd Get
Along without Them-A Six Months
Trial Satisfactory to the Merchants.
Spalding Bros. the sporting goods men. say
that they have won their fight against middle
men and price.cutte-s. and. that Instead 81 los-
ing business. as the Jobbors predicted they
would. they have gained The Spaldings' fight
attracted considerable attention when 1t was
begun six months ago and THE Sun told about
It at the time. The beginning Of II was when
some Of the big department stores advertised
TO sell a lot OF tho trademarked goods at less
than the re-. all price. charged for them in the
manufacturers own store. and In some in-
stances at less even.than the wholesale price.
This spoiled the business of the small dealers,
who sold sporting goods purchased direct from
the Spadings and. who. because their orders
were small. had to pay the ton wholesale price.
The concern refused to sell any goods to the
department stores finally. That made no diff
ference to tho big stores. They simply went
to the jobbers and got what they wanted at as
low prices AS they had been able to buy direct.
and In some cases at lower prices. The only
way to stop them was to cut off tho jobbers
and refuse to sell to them. That was a more
serious matter. Tor Il very large Der cent. of the
total business Of the concern was done through
the jobbers ; They were were the, dstribqtins
ness. All sorts OF things were done to In
duce the jobbsrs to keep up the prices Of the
Jobber refused to sell to n de partment store an
nounced that they W were I THROUGH With tie lob.
bers entirely. that they would establish two
prices prices; one wholesale and one retail. and
retail price on the retail dea !er. They would
sell at the wholesale price only to such dealers
than the retail Grce fixed by the manufac-
turers, and any dealer who would so agree.
be Permitted to buy at the same price as the
dealer dealer WHOSE order went into the thousands OF
snaldings had gone daft Tho department
dons. but il it c Could they would would be glad d Of it.
They would prefer to sell the, goods at the
The scheme Was put in operation PROMPTLY
taEsd Win fHr Sx Sncs w.
t t He sHd his lrm had been successful
had been sold TO iobbgrs aud The" they h had tn not
were some efforts by persistent price cutters
to keep supply Of goods and cut the price.
ksep up their supply. The favorite method
was to purchase through some retail dealer
The concern quadrurled its stan Of travelling
| statesmen and these men kent close watch
% bsy they meSd OF cose
where the goods had come from and then the
privilege OF purchasing q the wholesale price
the price cutters agent. In addition to the
| lookout kept by the men on the road every
! order that was received by the concern was
cogely scrutinized Ii man ordered ten
! gross OF an article where he had been in the
habit of ordering one if the size Of his BUSH
| ness didn't warrant his giving as large an or
| der as he did give the order WAS investigated.
! 1t m AIDE no d ference II the cash accompanied
tho order II the reason for its size could not be
satisfactorily explained IL was not filed and
| the check was returned.
From the department stores. where the
mos: trouble was expected, Mr.. Spading said
| there had been none whatever All the at
| tempts at cutting had been by smaller deal
| ere. In some instances where small cuts
| had been made bv these cutters. after they
| had supplied themselves with stock OF goods.
| saeRmen were seut at once to demand au eX-
| PLANTATION. II 1t was that the dealer wanted
| TO turn the stock into money quickly the offer
| was made to buy 1t all back AT the price paid
| for II. In every case the offending dealers
| promptly put IN the price again Mr.. Spad-
| ing said there had been. no recent attempts at
price cutting and he considered the fight per-
| manently won