The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-12-18
WHOLESALE and JObbING
/. TRADE IS VERY IMPORTANT
Hattiesburg Has Large Trade and a
Number of Very Prosperous Whole
sale and Jobbing Establishments.

The jobbing interests of Hatties-
burg have been one of the prime fac
tors in the city and territory's indus
trial advancement, and it can be safe
.ly stated that there is no city the
size of Hattiesburg with more wide
awake, aggressive and progressive
buNness firms engaged in the whole
sale trade. The same remarkable !
development recorded in other bust !,
ness enterprises of Mississippl's
youngest city has marked the career
and growth of its jobbing interests,
and like the other lines of business !
the wholesale trade is yet in its in
fancy.
The enterprise and determination |
of the men who but few years ago !
saw the possibilities of Hattiesburg
becoming an important jobbing cen
ter and engaged in different lines of
the trade, have forged ahead, devel-
oping the trade of the adjacent terri
tory until today the amount of whole
! sale business done by the local deal
ers in all lines is well up in the mil
lions of dollars. This development
speaks volumes for the wholesale in
terests and the young men whose
management is responsible for the
phenomenal increase from year to
yeI2 in their respective lines.
Thus far the greatest development
of Hattiesburg's wholesale trade has
! naturally been in the grocery, feed
stuffs and produce lines, but other
lines, machinery and mill supplies,
dry goods notions, drugs, ETC., are
successfully jobbed. These latter
lines offer splendid opportunities for
future development and with the con-
stantly increasing population of the
South Mississippi countries of which
this city is the logical center and
trading point, it is confidently expect
I ed that capital will find profitable
field for investment in these branches
7. of the jobbing trade. The hardware
and building material, sash, doors,
blinds, etc. trade has in the last two
or three years been developed until it
is now an important branch of the
business of the local hardware dealers
n When it is taken into consideration
NJ that the wholesale grocers who cover
"a the largest area of territory, have
u been handicapped by reason of more
a sparsely settled territory,-and dis
crb >inated against, unjustly, in the
III, Yer of freight rates-than the old
ef G(ies of the state with which they
come in direct competition, the fact
that their business has constantly
grown until today they enjoy vol
ume of trade entirely commensurate
with the amount of capital invested
Is all the more remarkable. This is
4 likewise further evidence of the pro
eressiyeness of those merchants. The
4 Wholesale merchants of this city
! faced a crisis when the panic arrived
unannounced in the fall of 1907 ant
saw-mill after saw-mill, in the towns
II on which the merchants were de
m pendent for the largest amount o
4. trade. shut down for indefinite period
III with the ensuing failures of retail
Il merchants in those localities. Blu
with the same grit and determination
4 exercised in building up the business
tbav STAYED with it through tn
months of depression and losses an
today are perhaps in a healthier
nancial condition than ever before
With the losses incurred from an cas-
n system of credit extension came cal
tion and more conservative methods
\ which have in the long run redount
III ed to the benefit of both seller an
\ Y bnver Through that period of d.
nression. with a consequent falling o
in trade. no failure was recorde
among the jobbers, and they took car
4 of their trade in a manner that hs
,aese strongly entrenched them in tn
,1llty of an appreciative clientele.
W Tattiesburg, by reason of its yout
fu,ness, phenomenal, permanel
growth, with a rapidly developir
territory along the new lines of RAJ
roads and further removed from
81 N large town than any of its sist'
cities of the state, offers most attra
t;va advantages to new jobbing ente
nrises. which are future certaintie
xvhen it receives justice in the Wa
"a railroad rates. one of the create
bstacles in the paint of its develo