The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-05-17

to show you first, that they can not
manufacture geod merchandise cheap
er than home merchants. We have
also tried TO show that the expense
Of operating mail order houses Is
enormously out Of proportion to their
income as derived from their sales,
and we have tried TO show you that
their advertising Is out of proportion
to their sales and that they resort to
false advertising to sell their goods.
Now we want to make compari.
son between the mail order house and
the local merchants, because the mall
order houses claim that the reason
they can sell goods cheaper than the
local merchant Is because Of the enor.
nous volume of their sales, which en-.
ables them to buy cheaper and to op
crate cheaper, etc.
Taking the same mail order house
| we have been using as an example in
the three preceding articles and com
pairing IL with local merchants, we
| find the following: This house claims
to have sold approximately $50. 900 900
worth Of merchandise in one year,
and to do this amount Of business
they claimed that they require cap
ital Of $40,000,00O.
Stop and think; s4O,O00,O00 is two
thirds of sixty million, therefore their
total sales were only $20,OOO,OOO more
than their capital.
We find by computation that II
would take six hundred merchants,
each selling 100000 worth of mer.
chandise per year. to sell 100000, 900
| worth.
BY referring to the commercial
agencies. by talking to bankers, by
getting Information at first hand from
the merchants themselves, we find
that the average capital of mer.
chant who sells 100000 worth OF
merchandise per year is between
| $25,00O and $4,000. Then the total
capital required by the six hundred
local merchants who sell the same
amount OF merchandise as this mail
order house, allowing each merchant
the maximum amount of capital,
which would be $35,0O0 would require
only $21,000,00C, or just $1,000 900
more than one-half what the mail or.
der house required to do the same
amount of business. We also find
that the average expenses of mer-
chant who sells 100000 worth of
merchandise per year does not exceed
over 100000. Then the six hundred
merchants would have a total oper-
ating or overhead expense of Sl2
600, as compared with $20,000000 re-
quired by the mail order house for
their overhead or operating expenses.
Now, then the mail order house re-
quires practically double the capital
and has almost double the amount Of
expense to DO the same amount Of
business; then does it look reasonable
that this mail order house could be
selling merchandise, really first-class
goods that they could stand back of
and guarantee, cheaper than the local
merchants?
We do not think 1t requires eny ar
guement TO prove that the comparison
is entirely in favor of the local mer-
chant. Then this being the case,
knowing that the mail order house
requires practically double the capital
and incurring practically twice the
expense. we ask you again II this mail
order house was giving you value re-
ceived-a hundred cents worth OF
merchandise for every dollars you
gave them-how could they, in less
than thirty years. starting out on a
very limited capital, with very small
profit, as they claim In their cata-
logues, how could they have accum-
ulated the enormous wealth they
claim, and which we are bound to ad-
NIT they have, and at the same time
sell you goods equal to that sold by
your home merchants, at a very much
cheaper price.