The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1916-11-23
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER %, 1916.


runs tie corner grocery gets excited
and thinks that he is being singled out
for criticism. He usually fires back at
you the question, elbow in the dickens
would you run this business2" We are
free to admit that if we were going into
business for profit and big profit we
would try buying Fwar brides" rather
than running a grocery store or attempt
to put over lively moving picture
show rather than operate meat mar
ket, but under the same demand that
there must be hewers of wood and bear
ers of water, we supposed that there
must be retail grocers and market men
and men who cater to the retail trade.
A lot Of men may offer criticisms, but
most of them can not offer remedies.
This was one of the troubles in the
recent campaign. The lack Of RENE
dies was one Of the big factors in
keeping certain great political party
In power. As
1t was old Ben Franklin who figured
out that "God Helps Them Who Help
Themselves - There is always
select coterie of people who help them
selves and they help themselves so
generously that they are usually able to
get along without the assistance of
the Almighty. 1t just occurred to us
that possibly q little less timidity in
helping themselves might be the solu-
tion Of the problem of the grocer and
baker and candlestick maker in
Kenosha.
The producer Of things to eat and
things to wear is not necessarily as ex-
elusive as certain families on Lake
Shore Drive in Chicago. Fortunately
he is out looking for buyers and like
q lot Of men, he is not particular about
who buys so long as the transaction
keeps a steady stream of gold flowing
into his Golfers. The Kenosha Retail
er's Association has started a lot of
movements for the lettering of bust
ness conditions in Kenosha. The asso-
citation has brought better feeling
among merchants, it has gone out miles
from the city to increase this good
feeling and cement trade treaties It
has stopped the leaks of business at
one end by enjoying trained and eff
ficient collector who works, not for one
man, but for all of the men who are
enlisted under it's laws. If it can stop
the leaks at the collecting end it
should be fair to presume that it could
e bn loo he AL
end Of the retail business In other
words, the association should find some
way to introduce cooperative buying
among the stores of Kenosha.
The appetite of Kenosha is no small
thing to feed. In a year it takes the
products of great factories, of hundreds
of acres of fertile fields and right now
nearly all of this demand to appease
the appetite of Kenosha is supplied
through the medium of the "iobber. :"
He is rightfully named. Usually he
jobs things in order to meet conditions
an trade competition. In some states
jobher gets much higher price for
products than in another. He must
get money to pay the dividends to the
stakeholder, to pay for labels on cans,
to pay shipping clerks and travelling
statesmen and to pay lot of overhead
expense which does not aid a bit
toward appeasing the ravenous appetite
of Kenosha. These things cost money
Probably in the final analysis it would
be found that they cost more than the
actual food product delivered to Keno
sha. What is to hinder the Kenosha
Retailers Association getting right
into the jobbing business. Kenosha
needs ten thousand bushels of potatoes
for its winter supply, What's the
matter with buying these ten thousand
bushels in the field from the man who
raises them and not pay two or
three costs of handling them.
Kenosha needs the output of several
Canneries to fill the shelves of the
pantries. Why not buy these outputs
out right and stop the leak that must
go to the jobber who advertised GER
tain line and who must charge Kenosha
for the cost of the advertising. 1t
COSbb AlUutN-tUbS Ol IIOu6Y-TGO Q6-i
velop trade names. Tt is the loss of
this money that makes you and me pay
more for our food stuff and makes
the merchant in Kenosha have q
small profit.
The elimination of the middle man
is the thing that makes for lower cost
of living and increased profits for the
merchants. If you can unite the mer-
chants of Kenosha to have their bills
collected it should be quite as easy
to unite them to have their course of
supply safeguarded. The giant "'buy-
ing power" pictured with straining
muscles in the advertisements of chain
stores and mail order houses, is not a
Joke. But buying power does not limit
las operations to the congested dis
trlcts Of busy city streets He is will
ing to make his home right here in
kenosha if there is cooperation enough
among the men who buy and sell to
make 1t possible for him to find a place