Amador ledger., 1908-12-04
THE CASE OF LEVI.

| OF crowd or BlttsDurg buyers re-
turning in a Pennsylvania sleeper
from a flying trip TO New York.
81 live out in the subur bs of Great
er Pittsburg, andlthe other day when
| went in TO urge my chief to spend
more money in advertising a drive 1
had planned in my department
found the story of Solomon Levi of
Blank Run helped lot
"Solomon Levi isn't his name, but
Ill give his name to any of you who
want to use him on the old man. for
an object lesson. Levi arrived at
Blank Run only little over a year
ago. No; l don't live in that heaven
forsaken spot My home is across the
hills, in Oakhurst, but I'm only half
an hour away from Blank Kun by
trolley.
'rhat little settlement is the last
place on earth where anybody would
expect to make success with depart
ment store. But Levi made SUCCESS
Of it simply through ADVERTISING.
There's only a dozen or two families
in the settlement, all with limited
buying capacity. Lew went prospect
ing along the trolley line shortly after
it opened and found big vacant barn
in the place that he could get for
song. He took it because the frena
was next to nothing and started to do
a little inexpensive remodellng. Then
be let patent medicine painter put
him up harlng yellow sign across
the end of the building, Solomon
Lewis Department Store Every body
laughed-a department store in Blank
Run
But they didn't know Levi. lie
laid in modest stock. That was
the only thing about his esta blish-
ment that was modest. lie has since
boasted that he had only 500 capital
and precious little credit when he
started that wonderful general store.
The next week we were all amazed to
see double page ad right across the
inside pages of our little weekly paper
down at Oakhurst, telling people
what they could get at Solomon
Lewis for sent, the things they
could buy for cents, and the things
for 10 cents. There must have been q
hundred articles that he advertised
for l cent-four clothespins, thirty
invisible hairpins-you know, the
things that women always are running
out of.
1.-The merchants of my home town
had been taking the usual six inch
spaces to announce their sales. Solo
mon Lewis new general store at
Blank Kun uvershadowed them. The
following week he was quoting prices
offered in all the other stores IN the
suburbs roundabout in parallel
columns with his own and Offering to
pay the trolley fare Of every patron
who bought GO cents worthSor over at
his store. Such catchlnes as why
not save Is cents on dollars pur-
chase and get trolley ride thrown
jn?' seemed to catch the eye of the
frugal housewives in the working
mems homes along the trolley line.
Every week for five mortal weeks he
kept that double page ad going in our
home paper-the biggest ad in the
paper. Every one of those five ads
compared the prices at the stores in
the nearby suburbs with those at
Solomon Lewis emporium, for it had
grown to be an emporium by this
time.
"rhen he reduced the size of his
advertising in the one paper and went
into every blooming country paper he
could find along the trolley line. BY
this time swarms OF women with
baskets were asking the conductors
on the cars to put them off at Blank
hun. They laughed and scoffed when
! they first saw the barnlike structure
at the roadside, but they did their
buying jusC the same.
"Soon my wife's washerwomen was
asking her why she didn't buy her
washing soap at Solomon Lewis and
save . cents on every three cakes.
The stock at the emporium became
more ambitious, and | do believe that
IN those days the proprietor enumer
ated every blessed article he carried
in stock in his weekly ads. lie took
a shed alongside the big barn as an
addition to the emporium and then
moved an old frame house twenty
feet TO make another addition. All