The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-05-09
WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK
San francisco Business Methods.

To the Editor of The Journal.
TO say, as has been said In some Of the
dispatches recently, that the retail mer-
chants of San Francisco have for fifty
years practiced a policy of extravaganza
in business management, which has at
the end of each year left them with
small balances on the right side of the
ledger" and to intimate that the profits
have been wasted in extravagant salaries
to employees will be to both of these
classes of citizens of the coast city COM
plete surprise, and doubtless to the latter
a revelation of "lavishness'' which they
have until this time never realized. y
An acquaintance of over thirty years
with both wholesale and retail houses of
San Francisco, justifies the statement
that as whole, the methods of such
houses have not differed substantially
from those of business houses in other
cities Of the country. The fact that the
great retail houses Of San Francisco at
tanned the prominence and did the vol
ume of business which is to their credit,
is sufficient refutation OF the accusation
that this business was done in any but
an organized and businesslike way, while
reference to MACY of New York" as a
criterion of house marked for "adher-
ence to prices" Is to one who knows the
methods Of that house, a reason for belief
that the writer of the San Francisco ar
ticle is unfortunate in his comparisons.
| Whatever the spirit Of '49'' may have
been, the spirit of 'o6 among San Fran
cisco merchants Is much the same as
with merchants Of other cities. The man
ufacturers and jobbers of San Francisco
| have never been removed from the same
competition which has to be met by other
markets. New York, Chicago, Boston,
Philadelphia, st. Louis and Milwaukee
wholesalers have sent their travellers into
| San Francisco territory, and the mer-
chants of that city have found the same
necessity for close buying and economical
management as has been recognized and
practiced in all business communities.
The compensation to traYelers represent
| ing San Francisco concerns has been, and
always will be, based on the ability OF
the memo more and no less.
Pray, where do those travelling sales
men Of long experience, who are given
carte blanche" travel? Travelling from
San Francisco is much the same as trav-
| cling from city further east, excepting
that freight rates in most lines prohibi,
San Francisco representatives coming
| east of the mountains. To compare the
probable expense of San Francisco trav-
elers with the expenses OF the represen-
ltatives of eastern concerns visiting Cali
4 f0rn1a cities WOuiO DC TefeIduoH "
your critics of San Francisco business
methods If the San Francisco traveller
of long experience" has had carte
blanche what has the New York trav-
! eler visiting the coast enjoyed? Ar
evening spent at the cafes, theaters OF
hotels of San Francisco would have dem
onstrated where much Of the none!
4 comes from which has been spent
/ In butterfly life' in that city. The fac
4 that much has been spent in extraya
tgance and thigh life need not be charged
to lax or extravagant methods of Sar
Francisco merchants. Great business es
| Establishments such as have existed fol
wears in that city are not the product o
1 butterfly" or '1avish" commercial Ell
fort.
It is too early now to predicate the fu
4 ture busin ass life Of San Francisco, bu
there are no new lessons to be Learned
by those people. There have been no bet
! ter managers, shrewder buyers, nor NOR
i far-seeing merchants than those OF tn
golden gate city. The business Of tn
new city will be built on the same foun
4 dalton of progressive and broad minded
4 mmercialism as was the old San Fran
cisco, that glorious monument to the pho
neers Of early days.
&C. E. w. Parker.
/ Minneapolis, April 80, 1906.