Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1911-12-28

THE NEW STORE
by the way. did you get your invi
tation to Josie Lockwood's party, Mr..
Duncan? happened to see 1t on the
hall table this evening""
"Yes." he assented quietly.
ITS to be the social event Of the
year. hope you'll enjoy It,"
"Tm not going It's against the rules
at first-l mean business rules. I'll be
so busy at the store. you know"
Alone. was fain to confess he BAT.
fed my understanding
The rush Of business to Graham's
began the following morning. Dun
cans hands were full almost from the
first, and he had to relegate such mat
ters as making final disposition of his
stock and getting acquainted with it to
the Intervals between waiting upon
customers. Old Sam must have put
up more prescriptions In the next few
days than he had within the last FIVE
years. Everybody wanted to take a
look at the renovated store, shake
Sans hand and see what the new
partner was really like. Sothern &
Lees was for some days quite desert.
ed. especially after Duncan took leaf
out Of their book. bought an ice cream
freezer and began to serve dahs of
cream in the soda.
VIII Bigelow even dropped round
and bought samples of the tobacco
stock, from wofors up to ten-centers,
and smoked them with expressive
snortS. Tracey Tanners soda and Gig.
arctic trade was transferred bodily to
Graham's from the first, and Roland
Barnette gave it his patronage. albeit
grudgingly, as soon as he found it i'm
possible to shake Josie Lockwood's al
legiance. | say grudgingly because
Roland didn't like the new partner
and had said so from the first But
every one else did like him almost
without exception. Ills effectiveness
and courtesy were not ungratcfu aft.
err the way things were thrown at you
at Sothern & Le<ss, we declared.
Duncan certainly did strive to please
No man ever worked harder in Rad
vile store than he did. And from the
time that he began to believe there
would. be some reward for his eXer-
TONS that the business was suscepti-
Bile to being built up by the employ
ment of progressive methods, he grew
astoniShingly prolific of ideas. from
our sleepy point of view. The win
dow displays were changed almost
daily, to begin with, and were made as
interesting as possible. We learned to
go blocks out of our way to find out
what Graham Il Duncan were exploit
ing today. And daily bargain sales
were instituted low priced articles Of
everyday use. such as shaving soap,
toothbrushes and the like, being sold
at few cents above cost on certain
days, which were announced in adj
vance by means of hand lettercd cards
In the show windows, whereas for
merly we had always been obliged to
pay full list prices.
Still earlier in his career as a bust.
ness man he noticed that the local
practitioners wrote their prescriptions
on odd scraps of paper.
'"That's all wrong" he declared
"We'll have to fix it." And by next
morning the job printing press back Of
the courthouse was grooming under an
order from Graham & Duncan's, and a
few days later every physician within
several miles of Radville received half
a dozen neat pads of blanks with his
name and address printed at the top
and the advice across the bottom, go
to Graham's for the best and purest
drugs and chemicals" The backs of
the blanks were utilized to request
people living out of reach, but on rural
free delivery routes, either to mail
their prescriptions and other orders in
or have the physicians telephone them,
promising to fill and dispatch them by
the first post.
For he had telephone installed
within the first fortnight and the next
day advertised in the Gazette that or
ders by telephone would receive
prompt @tention and be delivered
without delay. Tracey Tanner be
came his delivery boy. deserving his
fathers stables for the obvious advan-
tages Of So a week with a chance to
learn the business
Starting with a line Of FIVE. and ten