Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1913-01-09
The Parcels Post, the Local Mer-
chant and the County Newspaper.

cnanL ana me C0unLy newspaper.
II the editors throughout the country
and the storekepeers throughout the
country will combine, if they will use
the parcels post instead OF opposing it,
they will soon find themselves possess
ors of new prosperity, and conpeti-
tors on real and successful scale
with the great mail order houses that
have done SO much injury of late years
to the prosperity of the local merchant.
No mail order house can possibly sue
coed in community as well as the local
merchant, if the local merchant plans
his business as intelligently and econo :
mically as is done by his big distant
competitors. Hitherto the great mail
order houses have rad the advantages
10 buying and distributing.
Manufacturers were compelled to
deal through jobbers and mail order
houses. They could not reach the con-
sumner direct.
But, with the parcels post and through
the parcels post, aud with the aid of the
country newspaper and the country
storekeeper, manufacturers hereafter
will be able to deal direct with the con-
sumers, and the great mail order houses
will find that they have real COMPETE
ton AN excellent thing for everybody.
No little merchant can possibly carry
the enormous stock carried by the mail
order house. And being unable to carry
the stock, under the old system, he
could not deliyer it. The mail order
houses had the advantage of sending
their goods by freight at low price.
If the farmer ordered something light
that did not make it worth while to
ship by freight, he Increased his order
by adding to it nails, or a plowshare,
or something heavy enough to bring the
weight of his shipment up to the mini
mum of freight shipping. He got the
goods delivered very cheaply by the
mail order house.
Under the parcels post, which will
constantly improve, the light article can
be shipped to the consumer at a mini
mum charge for shipment.
! This will increase incidentB " by tens
and hundreds of millions annually the
income of the railroads, although the
presidents of such railroads, who are
largely in the pay Of express companies
do not realize that IS yet.
With the parcels post working, the
local merchant will have his catalogues
instead of great stock in trade. The
manufacturer will advertise through the
local newspaper. and create trade for
the local merchant.
The merchant will have the cata-
logue. He will be the agent. He will
be on the spot, knowing the citizens.
He will know the quality of goods and
be able to guarantee them. And he
will be there to be questioned and to
answered. the goods are not satisfactory.
The customer will come to him give
his order for the goods very gladly, and
have the dealer make his profit, as he
should make it. And the dealer will be
able to have the goods shipped direct
from the manufacturer. to his own in
dividual customers, and the country
dealer can have the goods sent, if he
chooses, through the parcels post, with
his own name fastened upon the parcel
In other words, the local merchant
can be, if he chooses, as big and as
complete merchant in his own COM
munity as any mail order house in the
world.
He will have the catalogues of all the
manufacturers. He will be able to take
his commissions, and yet by developing
his own trade, by advertising indiyidu-
ally in the local newspapers, and by en-
couraging the manufacturers to adyer-
tise in the local newspapers, he will be
able to take take the order from his
customer, send the order to the big
manufac turer, have the goods deliver
ed for him through the parcels post,
and after making his profit he will be
able to sell the goods at least as cheap
ly as the mail order houses can afford
to sell them and in many, cases much
more cheaply.
Let the country editors and the
country storekeepers rem ember what
experience in this country proves al
ready-that work on very great scale
cannot be done ss efficiently as on a
smaller one with closer individual atteD-
ton.
The storekeeper who attends to. his
customer, who adjusts complaints and
makes things right, who can give advice
aud who with the parcels post. will be
able to deliver imm ediately anything
that is ordered-in than one-quarter of
the time that the mail order houses have
been delivering that the storekeeper,
backed up by the country editor, will
know a prosperity that he has never