The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-12-28
Topeka Branch Jones Dry Goods
Company Will Move.
Consolidated with Mammoth
Establishment at Kansas City.
HAS BEEN PROSPEROUS
Business in Topeka Has Ex-
ceeded Expectations.
Leave Only Because Energies
Are Needed at Home.

One of Topeka's successful mercantile
institutions is to cease doing business in
this city. 1t is the Jones Dry Goods
company's store at Sixth avenue and
Quincy street, and it will close its doors
on Monday night next. For the past
two years this place has been a. per-
feet beehive of industry on every work
ing day of the year It has proved
most successful undertaking in every
particular and especially from a fnan-
cial standpoint. There has hardly been
day since the store has been under
the management of the Jones company
that it has not made money. The pro-
fits accruing the first year reached a
fancy figure and the managers of she
store are certain that the inventory of
the stock will show that the profits this
year will prove far greater than last
year. The store is to be closed not
because it was not a money maker.
but because the Jones Dry Goods COM
pany wishes to concentrate all of it's
energies in the development of The
Great White Store" the home institu-
ton of the firm in Kansas City, Mo,
which is rapidly covering an entire city
block. bounded by four streets
1T is with great regret" said c. c.
May, the general manager of the COM
pany, over the long distance telephone
from Kansas City today. that We leave
Topeka. The people of Topeka have
ed US nObly in all our efforts
We are not leaving Topeka because,
as some may think and say, that our
business has not been up to expecta-
uons 1t has more than met our ex-
pectations A rather remarka BILE busi-
ness has been done. The store has been
a money maker from the day we opened
it and this makes it all the harder for
us to leave.
We are leaving simply because all
OF our energies are needed to develop
our great store in Kansas City. 1t has
assumed enormous proportions and we
are going to try and make it the great
est cash store in the entire west With
these aims in view we have decided that
we could not be bothered with a branch
store IN Topeka or any place else. When
we first went to Topeka it was not real
ly our intention to remain long. We
simply intended to close out the stock
In the existing store which we secured
through real estate trade, but so fat
tering were the prospects that we de-
cided to continue. Nor have we been
disappointed in the way those prospects
turned out.
But we have decided to co. o.fcentrate
all of our energies In the development OF
our store here in Kansas City and have
reluctantly decided to close the Topeka
branch The leases on our Topeka store
expire on the first of the year and we
decided to close UP the store then, not
withstanding the fact that the business
Of the fall and holiday season Just
passed has been a most remarkable
one. AS 1 said we regret to lfrlve To-
peka and wish to thank our many
friends in the city and its vicinity
whose most cordial support we have
enjoyed
AS part of a real estate deal a little
over two years ago the Jor IS Dry
Goods company of Kansas ca, Mo,
secured the stock of the old Kemper
& Paxton Model Supply company which
occupied the building on the corner of
Sixth avenue and Quincy street 1t
was the intention of the Jones people to
they saw an opportunity to develop a
store of unlimited possibilities and they
took a two years lease on the building
Under their business genius the store
grew and grew not only in size but in
the estimation of the discerning pur-
chasing public. 1t was not long before
more room was neeGl~1 and the big
floor space of the Hamilton building to
the north of the main store on Quincy
street, was secured. Even with
this addition to the floor space
the store was crowded for |
room, so great was the business
done in it. A large force OF clerks were !
employed and the store was always
noted for the courteous treatment its
patrons received from the hands of the !
clerks and the other employees from the !
manager down to the cash boys
There will be no special sale to mark |
the closing of the store It will simply !
continue to do business in the regular |
way until the regular closing time OH
Monday evening and then it's doors will |
be closed for good, as far as the Jones !
company is concerned. An inventory /
of the remaining stock will be taken. |
Then it will be boxed up and shipped to |
the store at Kansas City Mo Plans |
are well under way to double the size /
of this home store at Kansas City and |
Mr. Rose. the manager Of the local |
store echoed the words of Mr.. May I
this morning by saying that the store |
here was to be closed merely SO that |
the members of the. firm could devote |
their entire energies to the development |
of the home store.
Many of the heads of departments |
and clerks in the Topeka store will be
taken to Kansas City as the clerical |
to be augmented considerably to keep |
pace with the extensions to It's size
which are being made.
J. Logan Jones and LawreiNce NJ I
Jones. the Jones Dry Goods company.
are men with whom it is a supreme
and pleasure to deal They
are fine, honorable STRAIGHTFORWARD |
and plain spoken. They make a great |
and splendid force for the highest /
standards in commercial transactions
and are most powerful in tAe develop
ment and welfare of the west and the
in which they act Their
business is an enormous one. It IS a
severe loss to Topeka because Tley feel
they must sacrifice a wonderful ~ pros
porous concern In order to concentrate
and carry out their really mammoth
enterprise at Kansas City They have
a faculty of gathering about them
imbued with their own high
principles of commercial conduct and
in their Topeka branch this has been
exemplihed in the excellent and popu-
larity of the local management Of the