Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-05-17
bib Simpson" on Catalogue
Houses.


1t was only lately, l saw one of the
leading farmers in this community car
rying large, bunglesome catalogue from
Chicago catalogue house, home with
him. 1t happened that / was drawn into
a discussion of this question with him
and was actually surprised to hear him
express himself as he did. In the first
| place, feel proud of the fact that have
never patronized one of these concerns
In preference to dealing with our
home merchants. Probably one reason
why have not felt inclined to send my
trade away from home is because it has
only been few years since | found my
financial condition such that it became
necessary for me to arrange with some
one to carry my account over a crop sea-
son. In fact, it has not been more than
year since found it necessary to run
an account for short time and am not
one so forgetful of accommodations as to
order from a catalogue house and send
them the money with the order when our
to extend credit to me when | needed
it. But l can not say this influence has
been the only one to cause me to trade
entirely at home. l know if |, or any of
my neighbors, want to buy something,
if they would only go TO one of our home
merchants and tell what they wanted,
he will furnish it to us just as cheap as
we can get it from a catalogue house.
Now | don't mean he will let us have
first-class goods at price we would pay
them for second-class goods, but | mean
that for the same class of goods they will
) sell us just as cheap as those other fell
lows. In figuring the cost of goods from
catalogue houses, we don't want to for
get to figure in the cost of sending the
money and paying the freight or express.
If ii is anything liable to need repairs,
our home merchants can get them for us,
but it is almost impossible to get them
from catalogue house. OF course the
merchants in our town can not afford
to sell us goods just as cheap as these
year for their pay when these other
concerns require us to send the cash with
, the order, or as soon as the goods are re-
ceived. They could not afford to do that
l remember when one of our neighbofs
met with loss of nearly everything he
had on earth and when we started out to
take up collection for him every mer-
chant in our town, and, in fact, in three
towns around us, contributed something.
No one thought of asking a catalogue
house to help out on this fund. OF
course can imagine how much good it
would have done to have asked them to-.
lam not a philanthropist and | am
frank to say if anything could be saved
in the long run from buying from the
catalogue houses, / might then think
, about it, but do not believe you save
: one cent. know it is a mighty hard
matter for home merchant to come out
even on sugar. When he sells me or
any of my neighbors dollars worth, it
must weigh up to a dollars worth, but
when any of us buy hundred or so
pounds from catalogue house it can be
Just little short and we think, of course,
it has sifted through the bag or some
thing is the cause of it and we let it 20
a. that.
, know of one my neighbors buying a
COOK stove from catalogue house.
When the stove came it looked Just ex-
actly like the picture in the catalogue,
! in fact, it was like it only it weighed
about one.half or two-thirds as much as
the same size stove would if it had been
bought from one of our hardware men.
: My neighbor told me it was the last
, thing he would ever buy away from
home, because he knew he was stuck on
, the stove, for it was just like the picture
and the fact of it being a light weight
stove did not give him any excuse for
refusing to take it. Since then ! was
telling one of our hardware dealers about
it and he said he could have got the man
: the same weight stove and delivered it to
+ him at about 1.50 less than what it cost
my neighbor, counting the freight.
; expect the editor can see / am not
much of an advocate of buying from
mail-order concerns and | don't believe
anyone else will be if they will thor
oughly investigate before buying. 1t
won't cost any of us anything to see our
home merchants before sending our or.
der away, and then if we don't like the
; price they offer us we can use our own
: judgement
If this does not get into the waste bas-
: ket you may hear from me again.
''Bill Simpson"
a Certain Cure for Aching Feet.
GLnlra i.,tn xroIlr nhonn AlIo..,.. Il