Omaha daily bee., 1909-02-21

quantities. The iobber sells them for 7 cents to the retailer and the
retailer gets 10 cents. The mail order house agrees to buy the out
or even at AZ cents each and pay the freight The can-opener is
listed in the big catalogue at 6 cents and the country merchant who
wants 10 cents because he paid { cents and the freight on the article,
is thought to be a gentlemanly robber.
Not to the small things like can-openers is this tremendous buy
ing power of the catalogue houses confined, but to paint, washing
machines. sewing machines, bicycles. monographs. sanitary couches.
iron beds and ranges. Some manufacturers have discontinued SELL
ing to the houses altogether; others cannot get their goods handled
by first class jobbers at any price as long a they continue to sell to
the catalogue houses not called the pirates of trade, while still other
jobbing houses have come to the rescue of the retailer and studied
the lines offered by the catalogue houses, duplicating them in almost
every instance and enabling the retailer to sell the identical article
advertised in the catalogue at less than the mail order house offers
it and also saving the freight.
This is the experience of an enterprhdng dealer from Allen, who
has assisted in working out the problem, 1t reads like a romance to
the other dealers in the state because it is such a come back at the
"cat" houses:
For months the dealer noticed sewing machines coming to Allen
to farmers and others He made a little examination and found sew
eral machines had been shipped in for s14.75 each and the freight
was $3.50 to $2.4O, making an average of about 81 for the ma
chine when the customer loaded 1t in his wagon. The firm opened
correspondence with his jobber and the wholesaler was wide-awake
and waiting for the order. After a little waiting the wholesaler
1ound where h e could buy the machines at a price which enabled
him to sell them to the retailers at Allen for $3.50, the retailer pay
ing the freight. Big bills were printed. showing a cut of the ma
chine. identically the same sewing machine as listed in the cata-
logues for $14.75 and the retailer offered the machines in lots of one
or a dozen for $14.25, a clear saving of from s24O to SO on the ma
chine. In & short time the dealer had sold enough of the machines
to make all the wedding clothes and then all the baby clothes around
Allen. Neb, for the next ten or fifteen years.
This idea looked good and the Allen firm was not stingy with
II. The wholesalers also used it and during the year dealers have
tried it with paint. monographs, shears. baby carriages, and one
hardware dealer who has a general store tried it with shirts and
gave each man and boy in his community al opportunity to buy the
same black sateen shirt at his store for SO cents which the catalogue
house wanted s11S for.
Thus the organization has evolved a scheme for getting the
goods which the mail order house advertises and selling them for a
little less, or at least for the same and saving the freight II the
customer. Large printing houses have been secured by some whole
salers. to prepare to get out big bills with pictures "just like the
catalogues have" and these + generously distributed by the mer-
chants to their customers on rural routes whenever there is a feeling
that too much money is leaving the community.
No trade organization that meets in Omaha gives such a n elabo-
the hardware line. The Auditorium was occupied this year and the
exhibits consisted of everything from a fish hook to a motor boat"