The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1908-04-17
WHO Is TO BLAME?
sCWE PEANY-WIsE AND POUND
FooLlsH METHODS
WANTING Tc0 MUCH PROFIT
Reasons Why people ssmstirss
Turn Their Trace frsm Home
to the Mail-Or1er
HcuseB.

with price cutting. short weight
f packages. trading stamps. advertising
fakirs. boxcar merchants. mail-Order
I houses. dead beats and numerous
other burdens To carry and contend
with. the life Of the storskeeper Is
F far from a happy one He rises in the
morning With the tune Of the lara.
works hard al the day long. and goes
+ 10 bed at night not knowing whethes
+ the price Of oil viii Be raised on him
I the next day OF not Then there is the
home paper that the merchant s0ma-
I times reads. and it makes him tired
( 10 learn that he has been for years
acting the chump b. not advertising
/ in its pages in the right way. There
Z Il a lot OF retailers who kick and howl
about people sending 10 mail-order
t houses for goods and never once think
that they. the merchants, are 10 blame
for the matter
The other day the writer met far
mer He was an interesting kind Of
chap. pretty well up in the ways Of The
+ wicked world, the methods Of the box
car merchants and the manners OF the
{ local storekeepers. He said that be
had been buying goods from few of
the maIIorder houses for the past few
E years. He commenced pauOnizing
them in this way. he wanted 70 buy
small rife for his son at Christmas
time. He went TO his local hardware
{ dealer. found that the rife would
Z cost him $3.50. His son had seen the
same thing advertised BY q mail-ordeF
house for s110. He told his father
that he could buy ii for that The
storekeeper wouldn't come down a
cent on his price; in fact. told the man
TO send away and get IT, He did So.
+ The rife cost him. laid down. $1.35. q
sf.15 less than he could have bought it
at home. This is a poor argument in
favor Of the home store The dealer
could have sold the rife as low as the
mail-order concern could lay it down
in his town, but he wouldn't The re.
suit was one more man became a buy
er on the mail-order house plan
This same man told me that he
vent TO his local drug store to buy q
| rubber fountain syringe. He paid the
druggist s1.75 for one. A few months
later he wanted another one OF the
same kind He found It was adver.
tised in the big book for 50 cents. He
gent for It, cost him 70 cents laid
down to him by the rural mail car
rier. Another case where the drug.
gist was not up to snuff and wanted 20
make profit out Of all proportions to
what legitimately should be made
This farmer felt that he was being
Oyercharged for these little things and
could see no reason why he should not
save a little money By sending away
from home for what he wanted. This
same farmer knows that he should
buy goods just as low from his home
storekeeper as he gets them from the
mail-order house. He also knows
that In many lines he can buy goods
cheaper The only trouble is that
some merchants carry small line 81
merchandise on which they think they
should make 200 per cent. profit o.
more. There is little call for this
class. and when a sale is made they
want too large profits. Their custom
ers don't like this treatment. They
feel 1t is not the right kind Of deal
and are sore over 1t. 1t doesn't pay
the merchant to mark his specia
goods 50 high, for It is just on this
class Of goods that the catalogue
houses make low prices to attract al
tention and make the people thinl
they are selling goods cheap.
D. IL CARR.