The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-12-30
MERCHANTS FIGHT
TRADING STAMPS
Nine-tenthS Sign Agreement to
Oppose Them
LETTERS FROM CITIES
Boards of Trade in Southern Cities
Writing That Trading Stamps
Have Proven Bane to
Merchants.
LETTERS FROM CITIES

Over nine-tenths of the merchants of
Birmingham appear to be opposed to the
! operation of the trading stamp system,
and at an informal gathering of a num-
Der of merchants in the Board of Trade
rooms yesterday afternoon an agree
ment net to use the stamps was sub
mitted, which had been signed by a large
number of merchants. This agreement
and those signing 1t appear below.
One man at the meeting expressed its
sentiment in the following words:
1.-THE trading stamp system was tried
several years ago and proved a failure.
The people are not benefited by it. as the
merchant, in order to protect himself,
must add the price of the stamps to him
on to the price he is charging his Gus
toners. 1t means the ruination of the
smallest merchants"
Several letters from different cities
where the trading stamp system has been
tried were read at the meeting. They
are as follows:
Letters From Cities.
Nashville Tenn, December 20, 1908.
Dear Sir: Have yours of the 18th. This
matter came up with our people five or
six years ago, and for awhile they were
all the rage; later it became a burden,
and our merchants took steps for getting
rid of the evil, which they finally sue
ceeded in doing, legislating them out of
business in the way of making large
charge Later believe some test cases
were made; the legislation was constitu-
tional and for a number of years Nash
Vile has been rid of the trading stamp
system, and | hope it will never bob up
again If it does, l think our merchants
will knock 1t out on its first appear
ance.
In all probability your legal counsel
has a code of Tennessee and other records
in his office, which will set forth the
legal status in Tennessee
If can serve you further, command me.
Yours truly, e. L. SHANNON,
Secretary Board of Trade.
Savannah, Ca, December 81 1908.
Dear Sir: In reply to your circular letter
Of the 18th inst, beg to advise that upon
receipt of same I took the matter up
with the president of the Retail Mer-
chants association, and he advises me
that the retail merchants of Savannah
as whole are opposed to the use OF trad
ing stamps as an advertisement. In fact,
said association has eliminated the use
of same in this city. I understand that
there is one concern that is using them,
but without any material gain.
Any further information that can give
you on this subject will be gladly fur
nished. Very truly yours,
THOMAS PURSE.
Secretary Board of Trade.
Atlanta December "a, 1908.
Dear Sir: Atlanta was infested by the
trading stamp craze for some years, but
finally the merchants got together and
NV
unable to say. / understand that 1t was
very expensive for the merchants, and
their profits have been much larger since
they got rid of it. You might CORE
spond with Mr.. F. J. Paxon of the Dav-
ison-Paxon-Stokes company. Yours very
truly, w. g. COOPER,
Secretary Chamber of Commerce.
Augusta, December %, 1908.
Dear Sir-Yours of the 22d inst. re-
questing me to give you my experience
about trading stamps received.
In reply will say that several years
ago the trading stamp scheme was
thoroughly tested In Augusta and
worked very nicely for the first eight
or ten merchants who used them. but
when every house in our town began
using them they all discovered their
mistake and that no one was bene-
fitted but the customers who were reap
ing the benefit of the merchants
profit.
After about two years. use of trad
ing stamps every merchant began to
rack his brains to find some feasible
plan to put a stop to the whole
scheme and one of the largest firms
employed a lawyer to secure sigma
lures to an agreement to give no more
premium offerings to customers, which
was promptly signed by every repre-
sentative house In Augusta. and thus
ended trading stamps in this city I'M
til about six weeks ago when three
of our merchants announced that they
would give trading stamps and a strong
effort was made by the stamp COM
pany to get a chain of stores to use
them, but the Merchants association
of this city has been very success
full so far in holding everybody off.
except the three stores which began
them. If you can keep the merchants
together and not use them at all 1t
will be much better for everyone.
Yours truly,