River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-03-13

the goods he needed on credit,
Under the new system, as planned
by the magazines and newspapers,
the farmer is to sell his goods di-
rect to the city consumer, without
the necessity of any middleman in
the shape of merchant. What l
should like to know is, how is the
farmer going TO secure his city
customers? Will the farmer adYer-
tise in the newspapers and maya
zines? Will he send out circulars
offering his chickens, eggs and but
ter to city consumer? Will he sell
goods to the city consumer only for
cash, or will he give credit? If he
extends credit, how will he find out
about the financial standing of his
customers? 1t would be somewhat
of Joke, wouldn't it, if the state of
affairs were reversed and the farm
er should have to pay cash for all
the goods he buys that he needs on
the farm, while, in turn, he would
have to sell his farm products on
credit to the city man? l would
like to have fine large photograph
of the farmer of this country selling
their products on time to the fell
low who lives in the city.
Manufacturers, jobbers, and re-
tail merchants all tell me that they
are getting up mail order parcel
post catalogues and circulars to be
distributed by the million, in order
to derive the greatest benefits from
parcel post in selling goods.
Now of course l am just a COM
mon, ordinary teamster; my intel
lectual dynamo only runs about
half time. But what | would like
to figure out, if all the above things
are true-and / do not believe they
can be disputed-how is the par.
eel post going to lower the high
cost of living? If merchants are to
be put to all these expenses they
must either lose money. or add the
expenses to the cost of doing bust
ness, and necessarily advance their
prices in order to cover the added
cost.
Then, while | am rambling
around in my weakminded way,
suppose we discuss this point: Has
it ever occurred to you that under
the old system, when goods were
shipped by express or freight,
transportations charges
were collected from the consignee?
Now when we send goods by parcel
post we must buy parcel post
stamps, pay cash for them, and at
taCh these stamps to the package,
in advance. How are these stamps
to be charged for by the merchant?
The item is too small for separate
spot cash bill. The stamps, there
fore, will probably be charged on
the regular invoice for the goods.
If a customer takes two or three
months time to pay the regular
bill, then the merchant will be out
| the actual cash stamp investment
for this period without any interest
or profit in return. If, on the other
| hand, the merchant allows the cash
discount, then the chances are that
| his customer will deduct the cash
discount, from the price of the
stamps as we'll as on the price of
the goods. AS a result, the mer.
chant will have to pay spot cash
for parcel post stamps, and then
for his trouble he will lose the cash
I discount on the cash he has ad-
vanced.
Wasn't that a beautiful dream
that the magazines told about when
they described how farmer could
send dozen of eggs by parcel post
to his city customer? Just figure
out the price of eggs in the country,
then add the cost of the special
pasteboard box in which the eggs
would have to be sent, also the
postage on the eggs, together with
the loss from breakage, and we
think you will find that fresh
country eggs would cost our city
friends about 7 cent each. guess
it would be cheaper to get them
from the corner grocery.
The other day meandered into
drug store and ordered certain
chemicals which l happened to
know actually cost IL cents. The
druggist charged me IS cents. |
inquired if he hadn't added too
much profit. l told him just what
the items cost. My dear sir, /"
answered he, Tin this corner drug
store we do not pay any attention
to the cost of the chemicals in the
drugs-that is the smallest part of
our expense. We are selling you
the high rental of drug store on a
convenient corner. electric light.