The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1914-12-22
HOW THE BUSINESS EXPANDED.

venience.
They seem to be satisfied with
whatever we send them" responded
my boss whom I will designate for con-
yenience ~"
They don't know the difference be
tween good stuff and bad stuff said
Y. q guess it's this way. Out in the
jay towns they have so few things that
they are glad to get anything that
looks all right"
'Ha," said z with shout of laughter,
They keep their parlors all dark ex-
cept when company comes, or on Sun
day. | can understand how their par
lor furniture don't become worn out.
/ remember how it was when l was
a boy
Look here, x, why not start a
department of furniture for our Gus
toners" said Y. 1--WE ought to find it
profitable" He spoke to me.
Il think we're losing money every
day by not handling furniture" in
tesjected q. Surprising we let x try
out his hand by putting new line in
our atalogue-furniture, carpets, rugs,
pictures and that stuff"
So it was decided that l should have
a respite from my Office work and put
In my time for few weeks looking
up the possibilities of a furniture de
oartment. All this time while We
we're doing an enormous business, sew
eral thousand dollars worth every
week, we carried no stock at all with
the exception of a few cheap watches
and other articles Of jewelry-revol-
yers and half dozen guns. The GUS
toners were furnishing the capital for
our business, cash in advance, SO that
all we had to do was to take their
money, go out and buy what the or
ders called for, for generally less than
one-half the amount of the remittance,
and keep the balance, from so to so
per cent of the amount, as our profit
After visiting several of the furni-
ture manufacturers in our city, for
INFLATED a list of prices and arranged
that we could obtain any Of the arti-
cles on the list at any time by paying
only for such as we had orders for.
Of course we got all of these things
at wholesale prices and I had learned
that another discount can always be
demanded for the payment of cash
SO / secured from the manufacturers
photographs of the various articles
had picked out and showed them to Y
and y.
They look rather skinny and slim,
those chair legs" said Y.
THAT photograph of a chiffonier
looks like coffin stood on end-it's
so narrow" suggested z.
But l picked out only the cheaper
grades of stuff replied. ''You told
me not to try to get anything ex-
pensive. It's all cheap stuff
Cant we make it look better in the
catalogue than it does in the photo
graph" suggested Y.
We sent for wood engraver to
come to the Office and then we went
into the subject in detail. He said
that he could make the chair legs look
bigger and stronger by drawing them
as though they were larger thar they
were actually As for the chiffonier,
and similar articles, he showed us
very neat plan. He took a pair of
shears and split the photograph in
two, then pasted the two parts on
another sheet Of paper so that the
split parts were about a quarter of ar
inch apart
NOW that looks like a wide, CON-
Portable chiffonier,' said Y, and we
could not help but agree with him. 1t
made an entirely different piece of fur
niture. 1t looked half again as wide
and presented really desirable ap-
pearance while, as the photograph
showed it, it would look too narrow and
ungraceful to sell we'll. The change
in the character of the illustration
made it look like a piece of furniture
worth $40, while it was to cost us only
about $3.50, wholesale.
And the chairs, when the engraver
had drawn them to look as though the
legs were an inch and a half in diam
eter, instead of as they really were
actually less than an inch through,
looked like So chairs instead of like
the chairs they were, honestly made
to retail for s125.
And so it went on. We took bu-
reaus, commodes, wooden Leds, and all
of the various articles that 1 had Sc
lected and made them look in our
catalogue illustrations as though they
were vastly SuperiOr DiecpS suitab
for the finest rooms in the house: The
engraver did his work we'll, with a con-
slant grin on his face, for he admitted
that all of this hocus-pocus, as he
called it, was new one on him.
One day he said to me, confidential
| ly. Say X, what will those poor yaps
out in the country say when they get
the real thing? Won't they holler?'s
repeated this to Y and z, who re-
piled soothingly that if they hollered
we would send them a nice letter and
jolly them along.
We've got their money, anyhow. !"
said Mr.. Y Let 'em holler."
Yes. and they'll send after MORE
aid z.
We decided that we would take the
curse off the chances for kicking by
putting the actual measurements into
the catalogue descriptions. If they
should write in. with a kick, we could
! cali their attention to the actual
measurements and explain there had
| been no deception practiced in cur
statements 10 them in the cataIOo1le