Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-01-16
0 MANY STORES
CONDITIONS SOMETIMES FOUND
IN NEWER SECTIONS.
Is A POOR BUSINESS POLICY
Good Judgment in Amount of Trade
S~torekeeper Can Control Is
Great Essential to
Success,

There is such a thing as OVERRIDING
business. There are illus
trations of this condition in the newer
sections of the west. Towns are built
up before the country is fairly settled.
and there is little besides the town
trade to support the business concerns.
There will be several general stores to
supply what n good store should
look after.
This is poor policy. There are GER
tain conditions that indicate whether
there is room in a town or a commu
nifty for a business concern. 1t is a
well-known fact that the people re-
quire just SO much food, so much
clothing, so much this and that essen
tial to living, and while one family or
person may consume more than an
other certain person, when the average
is made it will be found that each
spends so much during the year. This
being the case, it is IN easy matter
for the man contemplating establish
ing a store to estimate about the
amount Of trade that he can safely
hope to control. If he oversteps the
limit, he is sure to meet with disaster.
Where there are more stores than is
justified some dealer must conduct an
improbable business. 1t is generally
the one who has poor business ability,
The experienced and the capable al
ways win, but it is seldom that the
astute and careful merchant seeks a
location in an overworked field.
Where there are too many business
men in a town, there is always heard
complaints of dull business. The field
is generally made an overdone enc by
the classes which may be rightly
called 'pikers" or sm%all-caliber mer-
chants, who see one storekeeper in a
place doing fairly well, and conclude
that there is a chance for themselves
to make a little easy money. The re.
suit is poor business for all, and
eventually failure. 1t is poor judg
ment in matters Of this kind that runs
up the list of general store failures
above the average in other lines.
1t is important that the one looking
for a good location for a store of any
kind, pick out a field where there is
need of the class of business estab
lishment that he contemplates start
ing, and where there shall be patron
age enough to make the undertaking
q success. Unless this matter be care
fully Investigated, one runs a risk.
In a new country the towns are gen
orally built up first, and the %agricultur
al section settled up in a gradual way
Settlers are not always a wealthy
class, and are not the 11ost liberia
buyers. Still they must have neces
new town storekeeper gets his princi
pal business. A store is always sue
cessful in a thickly populated com
munity, If the management is such al
that is essential for success is capita
and brains to rightly conduct the bust
less undertaken, for there is always
large mass of people to do the buying
and they will turn their trade to thu
merchant that throws out the prope
inducements to them, and satisfies
them the best. In the country, o
small town, things are different ant
business must be conducted on a dit
ferent basis. Where theirs is not popu
lation enough to consume any grea
amount of goods, it would be foo
hardy to try to build up a great busi
ness, for trade is regulated entirel,
by the wants of the people, and thei
wants are according to their customs
their success and tastes.