The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-04-28
MAIL ORDERS
How Home Merchants are
Hurt by Them.
GOOD HINTS TO LOCAL DEALERS
What Practical Men Suggest as
to the Best Means for Over
coming their RuinOus In.
fluence on the Country
Trade.

We hear much complaint to-day of
the curse of the mail order evil and the
menace that these great retail insttu-
tions are rapidly becoming to the small
retailers of the country. We hear on all
sides the lamentations OF the retail mer-
chant and his appeal for protection from
this great retail octopus, whose tentacles
have penetrated every hamlet and every
home in every country upon every rural
route throughout the country. The pic
ture of this great evil has not been over
drawn, nor has the danger been over
estimated. The menace of the mail order
house to the small retailer is present,
and exists to an alarming degree.
1t may we'll be said that this is a great
evil; that it does exist and that it is here
to remain permanently.
There is no escape by legislation.
There is no such thing as relief through
public sentiment. 1t is now clean cut
issue between the mail order house and
the retail merchant for the business of
every community. The result will be
determined by the future, and it is but
a question of the survival of the fittest.
1t may we'll be said that there is nothing
left for the merchant but to fight for his
existence, and there is but one weapon
with which to fight. The old adage of
"fighting the devil with fire" is very ap-
r,lino hlo II, fhio Tho ,,ooiI nrHar
houses of this country are living ex-
ample of the value of retail advertising.
They have built their business from a
small foundation into the enormous con-
Germs that they have now become, largely
through the judicious and extravagant
use of printers ink. They have placed
a catalogue of prices in the home of
nearly every farmer upon every rural
route in the country.
If the retail merchant in a country
town would place himself upon an equal
ity with these larger concerns he must
convince the people that his store can
serve them best; he must place his ad-
vertising in those homes also, so that the
things which he has to sell and the prices
that he gets for them may be compared
with the prices of the mail order house.
A very prominent merchant says:
81 am firm believer in the generous
use of printers ink. | attribute to a very
large degree what little success l have
made in business largely to two things
first, effective advertising, that brought
people to my store, and, second, the
fact that delivered the goods when they
came, according to the advertisement.
"There has not been year in the
past thirteen years that the volume of
my sales has not shown considerable
and substantial increase over the year
previous. l have frequently thought
that my business was sort OF mush-
room business-in other words, it has
grown out proportion to my surround
ings. 1t is sort of high pressure busi-
ness. That is to say that through strong
advertising and keeping continually al
it l have got to point where advertis-
ing has become an absolute necessity to
keep it at that point. l am firmly con-
vinced of this, and l believe that my
advertising is directly responsible for the
size of the business, and l thoroughly
believe that if should discontinue ad.
vertising for single year my business
would decrease 80 to 40 per cent. in vol.
umeo