Arizona republican., 1910-02-26
A Mercantile Fraud.

Wholesale Co" of 40-42 Michigan avenue. Chicago. Like advertisements Uf this company are appearing in oth- CT papers of large circulation m the west These advertisements announce remarkably low price lists Of gro Ceries. dry goods. shoes. etc. and state that the goods will be shipped direct to buyers. freight prepaid The advertisement was accepted in the or dinary course of business. and with out solicitation. and We presume that the house is good" so far as the payment of its advertising bills is concerned. But facts have just come to our knowledge which have con- Ninced us that the Chicago Whole sale Co" is a fraud. and we have cancelled our contract with it. It is a fraud. in that it does not perform what ft promises
 If any of our readers have been led to remit money to this concern they
 
 checks or drafts forwarded.
 While we can in no case guarantee the honesty of every foreign" ad- Vertiser who may from time to time buy space in our advertising pages. it is our constant endeavor to see that no fraud is perpetrated upon our readers It was through following this policy and making inquiry concern ing the standing of the Chicago conclusion that it is d swindling con Cern
 timely to suggest that in practically all cases it is foolish to deal with mail order houses" which purport to compete with local dealers in furnish ing the staple articles of general mer- chandise. While most, if not all. of these houses fill the orders" in some form. the buyer never makes a cent by dealing with them. More often he is out of pocket through the pur- chase of inferior goods. Catalogues are constantly flooding the country, in appeals to the people to withdraw their trade from local merchants and place their orders with the mail or der houses. Pretty pictures. decep tive descriptions of goods and allur- ing price lists form the bait. The business has grown to enormous pro- portions Millions upon millions of dollars are remitted annually to these houses. the farming community and the residents of small towns being the chief patrons.
 With many farmers it has become fixed habit to buy from these mail order establishments. In Arizona. for tunately, the business has not reached the same relative proportions as in the middle western states. but there is too much of it in this territory. In Kansas. Oklahoma, Texas. Nebraska, Missouri. and so on the evil is wide spread. It is quite customary for people to buy on credit at the local stores to meet emergency demands, and to send the available cash to the mail order houses.
 The patrons of the mail order houses will not believe that they are making mistake. for the simple req son that they do not make proper comparisons between the quality of quality of the goods delivered by the bargain mail order concerns. They decline to understand that in dry good, in groceries. in clothing. in fur niture, in buggies. in firearms, and in all the multitude of notions which emblazon the pages of the catalogues. quality should be the standard of comparison in setting the prices of mail order houses against the prices made by local dealers. They will not understand that in all these ar ticles of daily consumption there is an extremely wide range of quality. i and that catalogues lie.
 Tn Phoenix. for example (and it is the same in Tempe and Mesa). if d buyer wants inferior goods he must ] hunt around to find them-goods of | the best quality are the rule. Quality l for quality. the buyer will do better | every time to pass up" the mail or der catalogue and get his goods from | the reputable houses of the Salt River | valley. Only a little thought would seem to be necessary to expose the folly i of buying from mail order houses in the hope of getting better bargains | that from local houses. Local dealers know how to buy, they purchase in i large quantities and get their ship ments in car lots. whereas the patron of the mail order house has always