The Mena weekly star., 1908-08-13
BUILDING UP TRADE
REGULAR CUSTOMERS THE BEST
 FOR THE NERO CHANT.
SOME SOUND TRADE HINTS
Reasons Why Merchants Should Strive to Make Friends of Their Patrons, and Treat Them with
 Due Consideration.

good many retailers seem to be 60 absorbed in the search for new customers that they don't have time to take the rlght kind of care of the old ones, and in this way they are driving business to the mail-order houses faster with one hand than they are taking 1t away with the other. says one man who has carefully studied trade matters. We do not mean that retailer should not al ways be trying to enlarge his list of customers. That is exactly what he should do, but he must give even greater care to holding the old than to getting the new. The regular GUS toner is the life of almost every busi- ness. He is the fellow you should have in mind when you are buying. He is the fellow you should decorate your store to please. He is the fel- low you should try in every way to accommodate, for he comes to see you regularly and it Is his money you de. pend upon to pay your bills.
 Your show windows and advertising can be largely aimed at the customer you are trying to get, but they must also give much information to the regular" if you would make them effective; and you must never forget that your strife for the new customer is not with the object of making . single sale, but to add him to the regular" list, It is this regular" list which you want to grow, for its growth means your business growth, and for this reason you must not be Keep them on the list. Give just as much attention to holding the "regu- lar" already in stock as you do to add ing to the stock" and you are good ways further on your road to sue cess. City retailers cannot generally be criticised so much on this score, although some of them depend too much on landing the new sucker" that is supposed to be born every minute, but country merchants, who have very few opportunities to land suckers" and should be extremely careful of their regulars" seem to be most neglectful of them.
 Very few of them take the trouble to thank a regular customer for his trade and invite him back again. They take 1t for granted that he knows his business Is appreciated and that he is always a welcome visitor. It does not cost much to tell him so each time he is in the store, however, and do 1t in manner which will leave nc doubt of the welcome. That is what makes his blood flow warmer, and causes a big lump to swell up in the corner of his heart for you and your store, and the first time you make some little mistake this bump comes to your aid and tells him, so he comes back to you and explains things in- stead of taking down the mail-order catalogue and sending away for his next order. Then, when you see the bump" has done this good work for you. be man enough to make the wrong right in such hearty manner that when he leaves your store again the bump" will have grown considerably. The retailer who is able to make every customer feel that he is a personal friend Is not likely to feel hard times, and If he has the other points of good merchant equal. ly well developed, he cannot help be. ing a success.