The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-01
THE RETAIL TRADE
A VERY SATISFACTORY YEAn rop
 MONTGOMERY.

MONTGOMERY. Cash Dusiness Gradually suppl.nts.~ old but Insecure Credit system Marked Improvement. fn stere Houses. sgs The prosperity of people can hest be judged by what they eat. sg If a country or ascommunity is not if a prosperous condition, n 1t naturaIIy follows that the people of that com.
 munity or country will expend their meagre means for only the vital ne- cessities of life.
 The class of grocery trade done in, community is therefore the best in- dex to the prosperity of its people. If
 the times are hard or the trade not fiourlshing. 1t is hard to conceive of the people of a city purchasing olives and asparagus tips for their tables in place of meal for corn bread and bulk meat. Chairman Cowherd of the Dem- ocratic National Campaign Committee recently isssued a propaganda, criticiz- ing the report of the Superintendent of the Department of Statistics, whose report went to say that under the Roosevelt administration the entire country enjoyed an era of prosperity hitherto unknown in America. In his criticism, Chairman Cowherd called attention to the fact that the statistician in his report had willfully neglected to test the prosperity of the country through its truest proof, the price and sale of foodstuffs and then proceeded to show from the meagre grocery trade done throughout the States that the statistician had erred in his cry of uneQualled prosperity
 Chairman Cowherd referred to the country as a whole. He did not refer to Montgomery particularly, for if he had so done, the result would not have been what he desired. But there are few people in Montgomery who would say that the prosperity of the grocery trade in Montgomery Is due to the Roosevelt administration. The pros- perity which marked the recently clos ed grocery year is attributed to two causes.
 First: the good price received for cotton during last season; second, the general expansion of Montgomery in population and in business.
 The last city directory of Montgome- ry shows that at the time of its publi- cation, there were one hundred and sixty-seven business houses doing al grocery business within the confines of Greater Montgomery.
 Of course. some of these grocery stores do business of large magni- tude. while the greater majority do a simple family grocery business. But every one of the one hundred and six ty-seven groceries are doing a busi- ness of sufficient magnitude to make it profitable for them to remain in bus mess.
 One hundred and sixty-seven groce- ries and figuring at the lowest esti- mate. each one of the groceries employ at least four wage earners.
 The City Directory above referred to was published a year ago. There are now in Montgomery an equal if not a larger number of groceries doing business in the city.
 Judging, from this, 1t would seem that Montgomery and the groceries are both thriving.
 The year did not start out propitious- ly for the grocerymen. Doubts were serious as to the outcome of the cotton crop. The trading stamp bugaboo was preying heavily on the minds of many of the retailers.
 When the cotton opened an unu- sual amount of credit business was done but the clink of cash in the tills
 was conspicuous by it's absence. But the farmers continued to stand pat l The grocerymen were told not to wor- ry about the absence of cash and in the
 meantime the farmers held their cotton | for higher prices
 The higher prices came and with | the high prices came the cash and
 with the cash came the smiles of the | grocerymen. The books, which had | never had as many entries on their
 pages began to clear rapidly and before
 the close of the season, the collections
 of Montgomery grocerymen had never been as complete.
 | T tell you" said a prominent groce-
 rymen recently, its decidedly more | satisfactory for us to have the money | safely deposited in a bank than to have
 a greater volume of business but the
 only result showing. being a safe full
 of bills and big stamp bills every month | for sending them out. Oh, it's lots bet | ter"
 But the cotton crop was not the on- ly thing that aided the Montgomery grocers. Montgomery Is undeniably | growing. The business of the grocers
 shows that conclusively. New indus | tries have entered the Montgomery l field New industries bring new wage
 earners to city. New wage earners
 bring new business to a grocery store. | The advance in business through this
 source was decidedly noticeable. There has been a decided movement | among the grocers to do away with | the old system of credit in Montgomery
 a relic of anti-secession days. With
 the new order of things, new business
 methods have come into vogue and
 many grocery stores in Montgomery
 are now demanding the coin of the
 country in exchange for their goods. They set out that if they receive the
 ready cash their patrons are in the end benefited the grocers through this | system being enabled to reduce their prices.
 Another improvement. which is mo- ticeable in the Montgomery groceries | for 1904. that was not true of the gro | ceries of 1903, Is that the proprietors
 are making their places of business
 assume tone and an air of prosperity.