Long Valley advocate. (Lardo, Idaho) 1904-1907, 1906-06-07
PROBLEM THAT is BROUGHT
HOME TO COMMUNITY.
Why Do Mail Order Concerns Thrive
When Consumers Are Not
BenefitedP-The Home
Advertisement.

threatening the prosperity of thousands
of country towns and cities. The bust
ness of these big concerns is multiply
ing at an alarming rate, and if the ra-
ito continues the ultimate demOraliza-
ton of business in many rural towns
is a fOregOne conclusion, says Edward
X. Slater, food commissioner of Mime
sofa, in the Retailers Journal, Chi
cagO.
Who suffers the greatest financially?
1t is the business men of the cOmmuni-
ty. Any DISTINGUISHED person familiar
with the ms and outs of the business
will cOncede hat the consumer is not
profiting at the expense of the home
merchant. If this were true the con-
sumner could not be blamed for taking
the best end of the bargain. For the
sake of the argument we will assume
that the consumer is receiving just as
goOd treatment at the hands OF the
mail order house as he does from his
home merchant. The loss to the mer-
chant must be somebody's gain. 1t
follows, therefore, that the mail order
house proprietor is the only n VINO
is benefited.
But the question naturally suggests
itself, why does the business OF the
mail order house increase at such an
alarming rate if the consumers are
not being benefited? This is n OF the
greatest arguments advanced by the
advocates of the mail order business
The answer is found in the fact thai
the purchaser responds to advertising
and he doesn't like to do business witt
a country merchant who went to sleeI
soon after he opened up his business
and hasn't walked up yet. That Is tn
situation in a nutshell.
The business of the mail orde
houses has been built up on advertls
ing, advertising, advertising!
My department has been giving con
siderable attention to groceries shlppe
into the state bv mail order houses
n We have been trying to place pelor
! the consumer the fact that many {
these goods are Illegal under our pull
food laws. and that this departmel
has no jurisdiction over such snil
r ments We cannot punish sucn VIOLA
d ors and thus protect the consumer
&C we are enabled to do when the goo''
are sold inside the state. 1t FOLLOW
IL as q matter of course, that this oepar
: ment desires to see goods only pu
i chased through local Dealers 50 I'll
Ii all will receive the proIe
" ton afforded by a strict en1orcene
y of our pure food laws. j..
> The country merchant must 90 L
10 duty if he desires to compete WITH l
10 catalogue house. He must peal u
with his w ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I
% too must have special prices on certa
o~r+iolos If he wishes to hold the MOI
+rode Grocers and country merchal
who think they are SO loca'eu -
in +hov cannot advertise successlu
Mt should study the subject of advertisll
al There is probably no store, Guy
or country. whose business coulu no'
a advertised successfully If the prol
otor onlv knew how and has the nel
and patience to do 1t. Ihere arc
oountrv merchants in remote LOCALLY
49, hove mastered advertising SO 5
cessfully that mail order oompe'i =
o. does not bother them. This ldea :
" Won have lived so long IN a to"h !
ne everybody knows you and you az Il
need to advertise Is a "isIaho -
St norv Indifference to advertising IN
nd ference to doing business inc wa" oae
lie, ness is done in this day anu se,
nd what has enabled the mail oraer NOV =,
Os. to grow from mere nothing 40 g
in concerns. onv;nce
en- Inc and keep Il