Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-04-13
IOWA RETAILERS TRUST.
Merchants Of Northwestern Iowa
Com zine in a Buyers .Associntion.

Com bine Ina Buyers Associations.
Several retail merchants of north
western Iona have combined in their
buying and declare that they are now
able e buy cheaper than in buying
itlaayiiiualiy as formerly MI II,
Stanhope, Of Stnnhope q Co. Os;oseli.
la. vas the first member Of the assoei-
alton to explain its purpose TO the Re-
porter as follows
The Object Of our combination is to
erdeavor q buy our goods al lower
figure thar we have heretofore been
able to do L. the large catalog houses
and department stores are able 10 hurt
us smaller dealers, 1t Is in a riea sure
because hey buy in larger quantities.
and, Therefore command lower prices
The poiai IS usually made that these
mail erdeE houses go 10 tbs factories
and therefore are able 70 cut off the
iobbef profit. OF course, when they do
such buylng9they can sal cheaper than.
uss dealers VINO buy with the jobtei's
profit ADDED For example, on dress
goods the jobbcr gets his serges in case
lots. NoN. wc ali know that the profit
of the iobber on a French serge is at
least 25 per cent above cost in addition
toa large cash discount Of 6 70 per
cent, and even more ii he discounts his
datings Ii is Very evident that If we
small merchants can cut cut this job
beis' profit we can sell TO our trade at
NJ p,iee we are now paying kim and
successfully meet any mail order ca,a-
log $ price Can it be dpne2 Certainly
nor. il we must continue 10 buy by the
piece. ard We can't handle more. We
must buy by the case If we are to get
cas- prices In order to do this twenty
10 TWENTY-FIVE Of US retailers In north
wes,aan Iowa have got together and or
ganized an association which Ne have
named the Northwest lowe. buyers AS
sociatfon. We have a president and
secretary. and a distributing point at
E.,nmetsburg, IA. Al this point We meet
and discuss our probable purchases
Individual members are assigned some
special lines 10 look up and get prices
on. In Illustration. ] have just bought
a carload Of grapes 5000 baskets al a
bought some time ago three tons "
nuts Another deal was for tea Thar-
teen houses submitted prices VIZ
placed an order for $3.50 worth Of tea
and estimate our saving 10 have been
I.
other purchase WAS ladies' wrapper.
An eastern house secured our order at
5000 per dozen. which we figure is ait
least 50 per dozen under iobbers' prices.
Roadmeri growl and some ridicule US
must be conceded that our efforts. are
business which is so common in the
la,c IL
successful We charge a membership
fee of 81, which is for incidental expen-
SEES, such as correspondence. stationery
kilograms. etc. Members must attend
the regular meetings of the association
and If they do not we black list them
We want no dead timber in the associa.
ton. The more enterpriSng and ag-
gressive only are sought We expect Il
1 who will come pretty nearly getting
right prices.
! Mr.. B. F. Mcfarland, OF the firm Of
Mcfarland & son West Bend, Ia. i.
the president of the association, and h,
gave some additional information. "Ou
organization has been in existence a lit
tie over a year, and I'm satisfied that i
is going to be money making move
\ |eAi 'Atiii Nireilicu UP pNtI |fvul last year
which is not so bad for starter. w,
had five charter members and now W.
have over twenty members, with lively,
only as aggressive as they should be
We are working for more members wht
will be active and in dead earnest
Passive members are burden to an as
sociation like ours. Our hope is to effec
an organization which Will have ii:
buyers continuously in the markets. w,
| the now soliciting prices from manu-
facturers on ready made goods. corsets
sIetc. We had several cloak manufactur.
ers give us estimates on a satin-linet
beaver Jacket to retail at $40 Our orde
was placed for 400 jackets at price o,
81, which we think is ordinarily retailec
at $12.''
Messrs Mcfarland & Son conduct 3
department store, aiming to carry al
lines. Their stock of clothing Is one
that secures considerable attention
they employing tailor in connection
with it. This enables them to alte,
garments with no expense and little los
Of time. 1t also helps in selling ladies'
garments. Their stock OF clothing 1,
kept by sizes and hung on poles, the en-.
tire suit being together The stock o,
shoes is also kept by sizes and not b,
lot.
Scotland was the birthplace Of golf and
for years lei. the world in the royal and