The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1912-05-04
NO STRICTLY CASH BUSINESS
Business Doctor Shows How
Hard 1t Is to Strictly Live
Up To

"An absolutely cash business" re.
peated the Business Doctor. Eyes, 1
have heard of such things. / have also
heard Of ghosts, of actors, who did not
talk about themselves. and of women
who could keep secret. So far as
having actually seen an absolutely cash
business is concerned. have never seen
one, any more than have seen any one
OF the other three things l have men,
toned. l believe the cash business to be
an impossibility.
"Why? Here's the proposition.
given q merchant in the grocery busi-
ness. John Jones buys his groceries of
the merchant for months, and both par
ties are well pleased. One day toward
the end of the mouth Jones wants a
ham. and goes to that grocer and tells
him that. owing to some extra expenses
in his family, he is unable to pay for
the ham till the first of the month, and
asks credit. That grocer is mp against
the hardest proposition a business man
has to face. His first option is between
giving Jones to understand distinctly
that he is conducting a cash business
course, means that Jones will quit deal
ing there, as no man wants to hand over
from $50 to 800 month to man who
will refuse him an accommodation
when he is in a tight place.
1.-THE chances are, however. that the
grocer will appreciate Jones' business
so much that he will take chance on
him to hold his trade. So he credits
Jones for the ham and finds that he is
only mired deeper in the quicksands of
credit business. for he must now face
two new problems.
"If Jones is a crook. he will fail to
pay on the first Of the month, and the
grocer not only loses his ham, but the
grocery business of the Jones family
also. II, on the contrary, Jones comes
in on the first of the month and pays
for the ham, then he has established
niS CtCuit III th0t utOkC Hnd tiiC
can never refuse him again. The con-
sequence is that the members of the
Jones family are no longer particular
about having the change when they run
to the grocery for some trifie. and in
spite Of every good resolution the cash
grocer finds that the Jones family has
opened regular account in his store
and he is doing a regular credit business.
1.-The merchant who hopes to do a
cash business should never vary one
iota from his principles. He must be
prepared to lose customer after customer
from refusing to grant them credit for
trifies. and he must remember that the
deviation of a hairs breadth from the
spot-cash system makes break in his
defense that is as insidious In its nature
as the teking of narcotics to ease pain.
81 doubt the advisability of an abso-
lutely cash business-doubt the advisa.
bility of the system-for l believe that
the losses due to the refusal of credit
are greater than those which come from
bad bills. You personally would feel
insulted If the man where you take your
lunch every day would refuse to credit
you for 90 or 80 cents if you happened
to find yourself there with no change
in your pocket. Your customers have
the same sense of insult when you re-
fuse them.
"These are just few of the reasons
that cash stores, ban nshees, higher wages
and lower cost of living have all been
placed in the same category-things
heard of. talked Of and dreamed of. but
never. never seen, save with the eye
of faith -