The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-04
A LEECH!
Trading Stamp Business a Tre-
mendous Tax
On the Merchants and on the
Buying Public.
Sucking the Life Blood Out of
Many Concerns.
1T COSTS THOUSANDS
Ten Thousand Dollars Paid For
the Feature
During the Single Month OF
December.
Business Houses Being Driven
to the Necessity
OF RAISING PRICES,
Or of Ceasing to Give the Ex
pensiVe Stickers.
Growth of the Craze, and How
It Works.

The people ofTopeka have gone stamp
crazy.
The disease is not confined to any
locality, but is everywhere.
1t can not be quarantined against be-
cause it exists at every store.
In the last few days the ''malady' has
been growing more and more malevolent.
A short time ago a dollar in stamps was
given for $1.OO in goods. Then somebody
gave $500 in stamps for every $1.OO in
goods purchased. Then it jumped to
$500 in stamps for $1.OO in goods. Yes
terday it was $1,000 in stamps for $1.00
in trade. Where the end will be no
body knows
1t may stop as it did in Kansas City,
where the stamp fad is no more and has
ceased by the disappearance of the man
who gives the few cents in queensware,
for a hundred dollars worth in stamps.
The stamp collectors would then be
in the same position as a depositor who
finds his bank closed when he goes for
his money.
The stamp feature in the business of
Topeka for the month of December cost
the merchants of this city $4,000 and
was a big fraud and deception on the
customers as we'll This tax upon the
business interests is now resulting in
just what was evident it would result
in. That is, merchants are quietly, but
not openly, advancing their prices to
meet this enormous drain on their bus
mess. Some of the merchants have
been doing this for considerable length
of time, where the price can be changed
without attracting much attention.
Many of the business men who have
not heretofore advanced the price have
determined that they must do so, or
abandon the giving of stamps.
It has cost many individual merchants
from 5000 to $4OO per month. ]. S.
Sproat of the Star Grocery said that he
paid out $3.50 in cash for stamps in
about six weeks.
Abe Steinberg, president of the Hub
Clothing company, said that it has cost
him 5000 during a few weeks of time.
Mr.. Steinberg is one of the committee
in charge of the green stamps. He said
today the green stamps will be given
out as long as single concern gives
any other kind of stamps.
VIM. Green, another member of the
committee, said the same thing. Fur
thermore," said Mr.. Green, I'VE will
maintain the value of the article we
! give for premiums. The green stamp
company does not propose to give two
stamps for one and then in return
charge fourteen pages for an article
we have been giving for seven pages.
Where the customer is getting more
stamps for his purchases he will be sure
to get less in value in goods for his
stamps. This is inevitable"
Mr.. Green said that in his own busi-
ness he had paid out $4,000 for stamps.
These people are no exceptions. A
prominent clothing merchant said: ut
has cost US in cash for stamps from
the 10th of November to Christmas
$26000. The whole scheme is a fraud on
I, 4
toner. but the people are simply stamp
crazy over the scheme and we give them
out just as every other merchant does.
They have to get $4,000 worth of
stamps to get q. S1.50 lamp, or some sim
liar article"
Said a flour merchant: ''I have made
a price of $1.00 per sack for flour and
give premium stamps and 95 cents with
out the stamps and do you know have
customers who will pay the $1.00 and
take the stamps and yet those stamps
are only worth two cents and yet the
customer would rather swindle himself
and pay five cents more for flour in or
der to get two cents worth of stamps -
B. NJ Payne, who had been handling
the blue stamps for nearly two years
said today: 1.-The stamp feature was
such a tax on my business that I de-
cided that by January 1st 1 must do one
of two things. Advance the price of
my goods to more than enough to make
up the cost of the stamps or quit Civ
ing stamps. The stamps we gave cost
me about $4,000 per month. Had we
kept up the gifts we would have been
compelled to have added more than the
cost of the stamps for the reason that
| the shoe which we sell for 800 would
/ cost US, in the $500 worth of stamps we
would give at 31a per cent, 101a cents in
/ stamps. AS our prices run in even num-
hers we could not ask simply SO. for
| this shoe, but would have to sell it for
| $3.25."
Walter Thompson of Thompson
Brothers, furniture, who handled the
green colored stamps, but stopped Civ
/ ing them January 1st, said today: I'VE
gave away $4,000 in stamps in two days.
I found that the plain business propo-
sition presented itself to US that we
| must increase our prices to make up
for this loss. or cease giving stamps.
| We did the latter. BY the way, to il
lustrate how wild people are on this
! stamp question one of my customers