The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1914-10-16
CATALOGUE CONCERNS USE
CLEVER SELLING SCHEMES
They Really Sell Many Articles at or
Below Cost
AdrOit Use Made of the Hundred Pound
Minimum Freight Package
BY David Powell.
copyrighted 1914; all rights reserved

by the mail order buyer when compar-
ing prices quoted in the catalog with
the prices charged by the home merch-
ant, is the very important one Of trans
portation charges. The catalog says,
Here it is, come and get it," and
your local merchant says, Il have been
to the expense of bringing it here so
that you can inspect it before buying,
and include that in the price"
There has been no way yet devised
to evade the transportation charges
and the consumer is always the man
that pays it, and it is right in this con-
nection that the catalogue houses put
over their biggest business-g getting
lemon. In the explanation OF how it
is done will be given an Illustration OF
one of the many ways they use to
create the impression that they sell
cheaper than regular retail merchants.
All classes OF merchants throughout
the country, big, little, honest, and dis
honest, at different times put on sale
what are called LEADERS arti-
Gle OF common use priced at, or below
cost, This is perfectly legitimate
practice and is followed by your local
dealer as we'll as by the catalog houses
and big department stores Of the large
cities.
Its purpose OF course is very evil
dent. A merchant hopes by this means
to draw you to his store, believing that
he can sell you enough other articles at
regular prices to warrant the loss on his
LEADERS" If you wish, you can step
into your local store and buy the leader
and nothing else, and really save some
money at the expense of the dealers
advertising fund. But how does it
work with the mail-order concerns?
It is fact we'll known and admitted
by every student of the subject, that in
the catalogs of few of the larger con-
Germs doing an exclusive mail-order
business are many articles priced less
than your local dealer could buy them
direct from the factory.
These, OF course are LEADERS - If
you care to take the trouble to run
through one of their catalogs and pick
out these articles, you will be very
forcibly struck with several significant
facts. First, you will note that they
are all articles of general use or con-
sumption in practically every home in
the land. Next, that they are articles
of staple standard price carried by every
store in the country; prices with which
every farmer and housewife are perfect
ly familiar. And further, that such
articles are always of small value and
small weight, very rarely exceeding
fifty cents and weighing but few
ounces.
Here is where the catalog houses
have undoubtedly the best of the regu-
lar merchant. You cannot walk into
their store and pick out their leaders"
and put them into your buggy and
drive home with them like you can the
sale snaps you can occasionally pick up
in your local stores. You have to have
them shipped to you by either freight,
express or post.
By an easy mental computation it is
at once apparent that the charges for
shipping by any of these means, added
to the catalog price, would make the
article cost much more when it reached
you than would be charged by one of
your home merchants. Here is the
''nigger in the wood pile. They well
know that for the thrifty housewife or
farmer to really benefit by the low price
of their leaders, they must have
them shipped with enough other goods
to make up minimum freight package
loo pounds-knowing that the bulk
of such orders, in most cases, would be
composed OF what is known to the trade
as blind stock" Goods that the
general public know little about either
as to quality or price.
OverbuyIng-Its Attendant Evils
Merchants throughout the country
affected by mail-order competition seem
a.