The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1914-12-17
Confessions ST a
Mail Order Man
By Mr.. M. o. X
Reveirsiens by One Whose Experience in
the Business Covers q Range From
Office Boy to General Manager
HOW THE BUSINESS EXPANDED

1T seems so queer that we get SO
few complaints from our customers
out in the country" said one Of my
bosses, whom will call "Y" for con-
venience.
They seem to be satisfied with
whatever we send them responded
my boss whom will designate for con-
venience a."
They don't know the difference be-
tween good stuff and bad stuff said
Y. Il 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 u 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 | was
a boy"
Look here, X, why not start a
department of furniture for our Gus
TONER'S" 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
tesiected z. "Supposing we let X try
oLt his hand by putting new line in
our atalogue-furniture. carpets. rugs,
pictures and that stuff
So it was decided that | should have
o respite from my office work and put
IN my time for a few weeks looking
up the possibilities of a furniture de-
! oartment. All this time while we
were doing an enormous business, sew
eral thousand dollars worth every
week, we carried no stock at all with
the exception of few cheap watches
and other articles of jewelry-revol-
vers and a 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 GO
| per cent of the amount, as our profit.
After visiting several of the furni-
|
mulated 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 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 H.
They look rather skinny and slim,
those chair legs" said Y.
THAT photograph Of a chiffonier
! looks like a coffin stood on end-it's
so narrow" suggested z.
"But I picked out only the cheaper
grades of stuff" I replied you told
me not to try to get anything ex-
pensiye 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 Snd 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 than 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 quarter OF an
inch apart.
Now that looks like a wide, com
Portable chiffonier," said Y, and we
could not help but agree with him. 1t
made an entirely different piece of fur
niture. It looked half again as wide
and presented a really desirable ap-
pearance while, as the photograph
showed il. 1t would look too narrow and
ungraceful to sell well. The change
in the character of the illustration
made it look like a piece of furniture
worth 500. while it was TO cost us only
about $3.50, wholesale.
/ Anu lIt tHdlIHt NH'll me tlEldNfT
had drawn them to look as though the
| legs were an inch and half in diam
eter instead of as they really were,
actually less than an inch through.
looked like s. chairs instead of like
the chairs they were, honestly made
to retail for s1.25.
And so it went on We took bu-
reaus, commOdes wooden beds, and all
of the various articles that | had Sc
lected and made them look in our
| catalogue illustrations as though they
were vastly superior pieces, suitable
| for the finest rooms N the house The
engraver did his work well, with con.
slant grin on his face, for he admitted
that all of this hocus-pocus. as he
called II, was a 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 hey get
the real thing? Won't they holler?"
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 they1l send after more"
said 2.
We decided that We Would take tho