Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-04-17
MERCANTILE
ENTERPRISE
Building Up Of Small Cities
Depends Largely Upon
Spirit of Merchants
PULL OUT OF THE RUT
Adoption Of Modern Methods
a Prime Requisite. Town
Grows With Him


Retail merchants who have attend
ed the annual conventions of their
associations during the past few
months, says the Mississippi Valley
Lumberman, have probably carried
home with them a good many ideas
which, if put into effect, would have
a beneficial effect on their own bust
ness and would improve the business
conditions affecting all of the mer-
chants in their towns. d,
In these days of sharp competition
from the outside, retail merchants in
the smaller cities and towns of he
country have come to realize that
they must do more than plod along
in the old way, attending only to
their own affairs and taking no
thought of the welfare of their broth
er merchants or of the communities
in which they live.
There are two causes why the.
SOuhIiS tOWho HdNC HOt PAC5A SSoSN 49,
they might have progressed, and
these two causes have gone hand in
hand. One is the activity of outside
competition in securing the trade OF
the natural patrons of the town mer-
chants, and the other is the apathy
of the town merchants in not making
greater efforts to keep his trade at
home. Anything done by the town
merchants to create greater interest
on the part of the people of the town
and the surrounding country in the
upbuilding of the town and the com.
munity will work as an Offset to the
activity of the outside competition
which tends to tear down home in
stitutions.
Thus it is up to the local mer-
chants to get busy. There are many
communities that have already taken
steps toward greater cooperation be-
tween the merchants and the people
of the towns and the surrounding ter
ritory, but there are many others
where it has not been possible as yet
to awaken the interest necessary to
produce the best results. 1t is proba-
BILE that among the farmers will be
found the largest proportion of the
patrons of the mailorder houses, and
it is also probable that this is true
because they have been made to feel
that the only interest the merchants
of their nearest town had in them
was to sell them goods with the least
effort possible
More than that is necessary. The
retail merchant must exhibit some
personal interest in his customers,
and the whole group of merchants
must make it evident to their coun-
try patrons that there is a common
interest in the upbuilding of the COM
munity
1t is not an easy thing to break
the habits of years. Many retail
merchants, and particularly those
who have been in business for long
time, are slow to adopt new ideas
and new methods. They have to be
forced into change, and it is up to
the young man in business to bring
it about. If he cannot demonstrate
by argument the advantages to be
gained by the adoption of up-to-date
methods, he must do so by example.
1t requires some nerve for young
merchant to take the initiative in
matters of this kind when his COM
petitors have had many more years
of experience in the line in which
he is engaged. But if he has faith
in his plans, he can be assured it
will not take them many months to
fall into line.
OF course, there is always the dan
ger of loading business with too
much system, and there is danger of
devoting more time to the initiating
of new methods than results will justi-
fy. To attempt too much is as bad
as to do nothing, or too little. For
that reason it would be we'll to start
one thing at time and to get it into
good working order before attempt
ing anything else.
In initiating new business policy
the best thing merchant can do Is
to take the public into his confidence.
should be started unless it is
to work to the good of the patrons
of the business as well as of the busi-
ness itself. The man who desires
to improve his system of credits can
only do it when he can show his
trade that it will pay them as we'll
as him. And the same Is true of any
thing else in business that departs
from the customs and practices that
has long been practiced.