Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1909-11-11
FIGHTING MAIL
ORDER CONCERNS,
Advantages of a System FoI
Solving the Problem.
BIG HELP TO SMALL STORES

cooperative Organization Formed b,
Country Merchants to Meet Mai
Order Business on Its Own Grounds
Sales Made Through Rural Merchants
The old adage about fighting the
devil with fire has been adopted in the
battle of the country stores against
the mail order houses. 1t consists in
nothing less than Il number of mer-
chants and manufacturers forming 4
house on the same lines as the mail
order concerns and making IFS sales
Through the country merchants and by
advertising in the country newspapers.
The new method is called the Berkeley
esystcm, and its headquarters are in
Sioux City.
The general outline OF the plan OF
this Berkeley system is thus described:
Certain special articles that have been
handled by the mail order houses in enor-
nous quantities are selected. They gen.
erally are staple goods for which there is
a steady demand. The small storekeep-
ers combine their orders, in this way
making them mount up to a huge aggre-
gate. The manufacturers belonging to
the association are thus able to roduc
the goods and place them on the small
merchants shelves at prices lower than
the mail order people can afford to sell
them, but at a living profit to themselves.
Many lines are placed with the dealers
ION consignment"-to be paid for when
sold. The goods sell better and faster
when displayed in the stores than they do
9rom the catalogue.
; A single article will illustrate how this
shn has been working out. The mail
order concerns had been selling thou
sands on thousands of kitchen Oil stoves.
Wood is expensive on the western plains.
and oil is cheaper and handler for the
housewife. The Berkeley stores and the
manufacturers associated with them took
up these stoves. with the result that the
business of the mail order houses in this
article throughout the middle west has
Eallen off tremendously.
, Today this Berkeley system has 5000
stores enrolled as members and is getting
new recruits at the rate of ten a day-SW
a month. TIL system gets out its adver-
Using in the cheapest form. 1t depends
on advertisements in local papers and
circulars. The merchants are furnished
with plates for their newspaper notices
and circulars and are kept supplied with
something new every week or every fort
night. so there shall be no cessation of
Interest on the part of the buyers and so
MAT the stock shall be kept moving even
h' and rapidly. Generally speaking. it is
Hike a huge department store, not under
sne roof. but with its various branches
scattered throughout the United States.
IN this way the business of these country
stores has revived incredibly. The vol
anne of their advertising has increased
300 per cent in the last two years. and
keir business has grown decidedly. The
country newspapers are glad to take the
focal stores advertisements at the lowest
possible rates and TO help them fight the
mail order houses. because the latter do
Atle, if any. newspaper advertising.
Thus far the Berkeley system has been
managed most j~udiciously. While the
manufacturers belonging to the associa-
ton have kept the cost of production
down TO the lowest possible notch. they
have received such tremendous orders
from the system that they nave been able
to fill them at rock bottom prices, yet at
a living profit to themselves. The coun-
HE merchants. who are in a sense their
aopartners, are thus able to compel sue
sessfully with even the biggest of the
mail order houses. The arrangements
with the manufacturers permit the goods
being shipped direct from the factories to
the customers as fast as the orders come
IN, SO there is no expensive handling or
storing OF the goods before they are need
sd. In every way. in fact. an effort is
being made to handle the vast business
with the s%trictest economy, not with a
view of centralizing the bulk of the prof
RS in one place, but Of distributing them
mpartially and equally among all who
are concerned in their making.
There are certain features Of this
Berkeley system that make it seem
feasible and practical. One is that it
recognizes the principle of %concentra-
Hon and cooperation that seems so
nuch a part of this age. 1t meets the
Rail order house IN it's own grounds of
aheapness of manufacture and elimina-
hon of waste. 1t was organized by
country merchants themselves to meet
the very question of the mail order
business, men who knew the actual
conditions and figured out a plan that
would most effectively solve the prob
lem. 1t takes advantage of the news
papers and thus has a superior kind of
publicity ovcr the mail order houses.
1t allows the local merchants their
margins Of profits and vet gets rid of
the cost of middleman and wholesaler.
1t confines itself to some of the leading
articles in which the mail order houses
have made their greatest inroads. And
by gaining the support Of local mer-
chants and newspaper men it builds
up a vast organization and one that is
powerful in every community. More
over, the system has proved itself by
its results. Already it has had a vast
success, and AS its plan becomes
known this success cannot but be in
creased. | am not speaking for the
particular house started in Sioux CITY
alone. Ihat is probably only a fore
runner of other houses that will! be
started throughout the United States.
There Is no reason why the merchants
md manufacturers of any section
might not form a similar cooperative
concern. l am only recognizing the
correctness Of the principle. On some
such basis and along some such lines
an effective fight against the mail
order houses could be organized.
The country merchants and the
country press should realize that thew