Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-09-12
RURAL DELIVERY WAGON.
Suggestion to Merchants Who Wish to
Compete With r. F. D. Vehicle.

Compete With r. r. D. Vehicle.
after an extended trip through the
small cities and towns of a central
western state" remarked a retired
commercial traveller recently, II am
Impressed with the great change that
has taken place in retail trade condi-
lions since l quit the road about twen-
ty years ago. l visited some of my
old customers on this recent trip just
for old acquaintance sake and tried to
visit still others of them, but found
that many had gone out Of business.
Changed conditions had put them out.
Some were the victims of the city mail
order system.
with n of my old customers, in a
city Of about 5000 people, with a we'll
populated farming community all
around it, l had a confidential talk. I
took occasion to give him some advice
which may or may not be Of use to
him and to other merchants similarly
situated. On Il long drive across coun-
try l had observed several things
which caused me to reflect. At the
front gate Of nearly every farmhouse
was q little mail box >,acked to a
fence post or to q tree, and ON nearly
every road 1 met the rural free mail
delivery man making his trip to leave
letters, papers and packages in the lit
tie mail boxes. l noticed that he car
ried many packages, and in reply to
a question n of the r. f. d. men
said that these were goods ordered by
mail from q distant city.
Then 1 observed that along the
roads and sometimes across fields and
through the woods ran telephone
wires. These wires led to many of
the farmhouses. They connected the
farmers together and all of them with
the town. This gave me an idea,
which 1 suggested to my old friend the
merchant, who complained that his
trade vas falling off.
II said to him: The r. F. D. vehicle
has become the delivery wagon for the
mail order house. Uncle Sam paws
the expenses Of this delivery, and we
can't help that. It's a fact, and you've
got to look a fact in the face. Now,
why don't you put on your own free
rural delivery wagon? You can adj
vertise in your local paper, which most
Of the farmers take, that you will de-
liver goods in b country to a certain
distance from town. Let us say that
you have half a dozen roads running
out from town. Select one day in the
week for each road and put your de-
livery wagon on that route for the
day. Farmers are busy people, and
their wives are busy. They don't care
to hitch up and drive to town every
time they wish to make a little pur-
chase. Why should they do so?
There's the telephone right in the
house. 1t connects with your store.
Why not have them telephone their
orders to you and send your delivery
wagon out with the goods? BY letting
the farm people know that your wagon
will be along the road on q certain day
Of the week, just as sure as Uncle
Sans r. r. D. wagon, you ought in
time to work up a large trade. OF
course you can't do it without syste.
matte effort, but you can't do anything
successfully without that. 1 don't
know how you will consider this sug:
gestion, but 1 am not charging you q
cent for it,
"Well," the ex-drummer concluded
my merchant friend told me he would
think about it seriously and 1 an
inclined to believe that the mail order
houses will have in one community al
least a competitive free delivery
wagon in the rural district"