New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1912-01-03
A Heart to Heart Talk With You

houses and Email order houses
which thru we'll planned and widely
circulated advertising, illustrated ca
talogs, and flaring reductions have
made easy prey of the town and coun
try folk who do not always seem to
look ahead to their own good thru the
building up of local enterprises. F..
Much could be done on the part o.
the retailer to bling about conditions
more favorable to himself. 1t is &
we'll known fact that in the large
cities merchants have little competi'
ton of catalog houses to fear. Anc
why is this true? Because ia the large
city the merchant realizes that it is uE
| to him to educate his public and he
does so by effective and alluriug win
dow displays. by illustrative adver
Using by good prices and courteous ant
prompt service. Such things do much
to remedy the "catalog habit which
always develops in proportion with
the indifference manifested by re-
tailers at home.
| While merchants in the cities have
larger opportunities yet the mercha nj
in the small place may with profit
follow in their foot steps and educate
his public until he controls his trade
b. having taught the people that they
| need him and his wares.
Window displays should have every
attention to make them interesting
attractive, and selling force.
Changes must be made often, ever
advancing new goods, showing up
some new feature in the wares to at
tract the eye and educate the mind OF
buyer. Displays allowed to stand for
weeks become an abomin alton; the
dust and dead flies drive away the
prospective customers by their indica-
ton of slackness and Indifference.
1t can not be pleasing to the mer-
chants to hear that $50 and so has
gone to the Cities to shop'' - and it
simply devolves upon the merchant of
the small town to carry at all times q
line of up-to.date wares because the
buyers will go where things are new
and fresh.
The question to be answered then is
What is to be done with the old left
over stock? Most small town dealers
fail to make any determined and sys.
tematic effort TO get rid of the dead
timber. AS rule they depend on in.
cidental sales at regular prices to
clear the store for new goods and in
this way keep on hand St oil times .
lot of old things that represent .
goodly share of working capital lying
idle and trusting out. This practise
does immense harm to the local trade
and fosters the "shopping by mail"
notion. Why not get rid OF oil the old
material At once with such noise and
demonstration over it that every one
far and near will know that the store
has been cleared of all that is not
strictly fresh and modern. There is
nothing th at contains more advertising
value for q dealer than the Offering of
a real bargain to the public. Bar
gains, disposing of old stock at cost,
or less do not bring immediate profits
but the flow of trade has started to
that store and the additional sales of
new goods would more than compen-
sale for the loss on the bargain sales
besides adding to the prestige ard po.
pularity Of the store. The bargain
method of disposing of old goods is
popular in large cities and # tried
out with considerable fuss and display
would prove equally effective in small
Ter places.
The foregoing is not intended as a
criticism of local methods but rather
is meantas kindly suggestion to those
who are interested in building up
local trade and also as hint to the
buyers that their interests will always
be best served by their patronizing
the local dealer who is one of the
community and pays taxes and is
constantly working to build up and
advance the interests of his locality.
Co. operation between dealer and
patron is of course the only sensible
method to employ and we believe it is
the part of the dealer to educate the
buyer in the principles of helping one
another. We mention these things
because your interests are ours. We
cannot exist without your assistance
and you need ours. In an early issue
we want to talk with you on advertis-
and meantime we welcome any COM
ments or replies to what we have here
said.
What is your Capital!