The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-09-16
THE WHY OF 1T.

1t is a difficult matter to convince soma
merchants, particularly those in coun-
try towns, that advertising is a necessi-
ty for success, yet they complain that
the public, particularly those on the
farms. patronize the big mail order
houses of Chicago. These merchants
assert that they would gladly fill these
mail orders just as cheaply as do the
mail order houses, but they neglect to
tell their patrons what they have and
the prices, while the mail order houses
make a speciality of doing that, both in
farm papers and in catalogues.
A farmer writes to a Kansas paper
concerning this point, and his COM
munication is exceedingly sensible.
IF the mail order houses he says,
"get 1000 out of this county each
month that belongs to the home mer-
chants the fault is with the merchants
themselves. The mail order houses ad-
verrise and give us the prices on every
thing they offer for sale. They tell US
what they have and what they want for
it. OF course we get soaked once in
while and if we do we can try some
other house. Most of the home mer-
chants who advertise at all don't quote
prices. They neglect to tell US what
we want to know-the price. Of course
we can go to the store and ask the
price of this article, and that, but you
know how it is-one doesn't know so
we'll exactly what he wants to buy when
he gets in a store as when he is at
home. And there is where the mail or
der houses make their hit. They send
their advertising matter into our homes
and read it when we haven't any
thing else to do and every member of
the family who reads their stuff usually
finds something that he or some other
member of the family wants and many
orders are made up and sent out just at
such times.
Right here is where the home mer-
chant falls down. If he talked up his
business to us in our homes the same as
the mail order houses do the people
would be in to see him the next time
they came to town and in many cases
extra trips would be made to get the
things at once that we didn't know we
wanted until they were brought to ouc
attention.
The home merchant can save the ex-
pense of getting up a catalogue. We
people read the home papers more care
fully than we do the catalogue, and if
the merchant wants to talk business
with US let him put his talk in the home
papers, and put it in SO we know he
means business. The home merchant
likely, nine times out of ten, sells his
goods as cheap as the mail order houses,
and I believe on many things they are
much cheaper. but how are we to know
1t If he doesn't tell us about 1t.
"A merchant must not think that
even his best customers know his goods
so well that they can tell what he has
without being shown.
TT is none of my business how the
home merchant runs lis business, but 1
don't like to see these roasts in the pa
pers all the time about us fellows who
get a little stuff shipped in once in a
while and never anything said on the
other side. There are always two sides
of the question and 1 have given you
mine"
The trouble is that the average coun-
try merchant knows little of the real
science Of advertising and does not ap-
preciate its value. The big successful
city merchants and the mail order
houses have made a study of advertis-
ing science. They give their prospec-
tive customers a description of each
article and the price of it. The country
merchant could, in the course of a year,
publish good sized catalogue of his
store on the installment plan in his
local paper, but few of them do it. The
ones who do advertise that way, even
approximately, never complain that
advertising doesn't pay" The country
merchant who refuses to take advan-
tage of up-to-date methods should not
mail order stores that ask for their
trade.