The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-07-20
s. +. PATTON.
The One Price Merchant, Waitsbura,
Washington.


prominently the peoples store. 1t
has been so from PIONEER days. With
the exception OIL a great increase in
variety of goods, there has been but
one important change in the manner
of conducting the general merchandise
store since the days when it's home
was a log building at a crossroads.
That change has been in the interest
OF fair and square dealing with pat
rons. In the old days prices were in
dicated by a private mark from which
the salesman might vary according as
circumstances might seem to demand.
in making sale. Now all goods are
plainly marked, and one price to all
is the rule. True, the rule may not
! be followed to the letter by every
general merchandise mouse, but the
system is becoming so generally ap-
proved by the people that in the near
future any merchant who marks his
! goods blindly, or varies from the
strictly one price In selling, will be a
marked man to be Stunned by all
careful buyers. 1t is gratifying to be
able to state in this connection that
S. F. Patton is emphatically a one
price merchant, and child, or blind
person can buy goods as cheaply at
his store as any adult man or woman,
with all their faculties in perfection.
Each and every reader of this sketch
knows the economy of buying at a
| general merchandise store, rather than
the store carrying a single line of
goods. There are cogent reasons for
this, and the writer thinks one of the
best is found in an old trade adage
that says: Goods we'll bought, are
half Sold"
The general merchant is big buyer
and can therefore get discounts on
bills that the small buyer is not al
lowed by his jobber. Then, too, his
expenses are less in proportion to the
| q Of
chant carrying single line. Because
of these reasons he can afford to sell
cheaper, and the people get the
! benefit.
1t would take more than the space
accorded to this sketch to enumerate
a. the variety of goods carried in
! stock by the general merchandise
! store; but we may make mention of
| tue fact that the large and well-assort-
ed stock carried by S. F. Patton is
very complete in everything pertain
ing to General Dry Goods, Clothing,
Shoes, Hats and Caps, Notions, and a
very complete line of Staple and
Fancy Groceries.
! Waitsburg merchants are most for
| tunate in being able to extend the &C.
! cOmmOdatlon of credits to their pat
rons. This is owing to the fact that
| ability to meet store debts obtains
| among the people, almost without ex-
| ceptiOn. When a merchant sells he
| knows he will get his pay at the time
promised. This fact makes for cheap
ness to the buyers as we'll, and it is a
| fact proven by actual test, that goods
er towns, where rents are low, cheaper
Ian the same goods can be bought for
| cash, in a city where high rents must
be paid.
When it is realized that Waitsburg
merchants divide the trade territory
! between here and Dixie, Prescott, and
Dayton, and draw from all the terri
! tory between here and the mountains,
| Inc large and increasing business done
by rIaitsburg merchants is easily &C
counted for.
1t may be said, too, that is is be-
cause of it's favorable location, that
some o, the best business men of the
Coast have located in Waitsburg.
Seymour F. Patton is an experienced
merchant from a clerkship to prOpri-
etor. He was for number of years
a clerk in Portland, Ore, notably with
Odds & King, Zone of the greatest mer-
camille houses on the Pacific COAST,
and had charge of one of their depart
ments. He came to Waitsburg seven
years ago, in search of location to
establish business, and while Observ-
ing the conditions here, and becoming
acquainted with the people, worked
about two years as a clerk. Finally,
in 1901. he established his present