Arizona republican., 1917-11-14
TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO BROTHERS AT FLAGSTAFF >
 DECIDED TO ENTER FIELD

About twenty-seven years ago a little store was opened in Flagstaff. for the purpose of doing a general mercantile business. This little store in the be- ginning was like any other little store in a sparsely settled community but 1t had shrewd traders ana good business men back of it and it was therefore not destined to remain a little store forever.
 The store grew rapidly and the busi- ness expanded therefrom until by de- grees It covered in one way or another the whole of the northern part of Ari- zona, doing a general and very pros porous business.
 Some little stores flourish for time and then close up or their owners sell out and move away. The average Of big stores that grow from small be- ginnings IS small. The little store on the corner or in the small town, even If it have a good location, that never seems to get ahead anG grow, usually has people behind it who either do not want to grow or do not know how to grow.
 Decided to Grow With the little store at Flagstaff the situation was about like this: The men behind it had come into a new country, a country in which they saw a great future and plenty of money. They, without telling everybody about 1t. made up their minds to grow with that country and if possible keep just a little ahead of that country in busi- ness way; in other words, to set the pace. They apparently adhered to this policy strictly for they nave cone what they set out to do.
 The Babbitt brothers. known from one end of Arizona to the other, from north to south and from east to west started that little store at Flagstaff They have seen it grow, or rather they have made it grow, until it is doing business in about fifteen places in Ari- zona- The business, however is not known as Babbitt Brothers in every piace in which the Banbitts do busi- ness. Theirs has been a natural eX- pansion of business, in which invest ments were made from the earnings ot the original business at Flagstaff.
 Beside 'Babbitt Brothers" at Flag staff, the Rabbits do business under the name of the Babbitt-Polson com pany. Babbitt Brothers Mercantile company and the Arizona Stores con- pany. But the headquarters of the Babbitt interests still remain at Flag staff.
 Growth of Little Store
 There are four Babbitt brothers namely. David, Charles J., George anc William. In the thirty-five years they have been at Flagstaff and elsewhere they have all been actively engaged ir the business; there have been no sil. ent partners. so to sp.ak. They arc al good traders and they have stayed witt the business. When the little store wa, established the Rabbits branched ou into cattle. Their cattle interests grey in proportion to the store until cattl became one Of their largest interests.
 First one department and then anothe was added to the store until now al most everything is sold there. In th mercantile end of the business ther are grocery and dry goods departments mems furnishings, shoes and hardwar departments, fruits, vegetables an feed. There is also a large departmen devoted exclusively to Indian ware their stock of Indian curios and blank cts being as near complete as it i possible to make it.
 Then added to all these derartment Is cold storage plant. a heating plan and an ice plant. There is also a pacl, ing house and slaughter house. Tn hardware department is also farr implement establishment. Out of tn hardware department it might be sai that the automobile department grey for in the early days people rode i horse vehicles and Babbitt Brothe, sold thousands of them.
 See Southern Opportunity
 Then, when the mode of transporta lion changed from horse to motor DOW sr the Babbitts saw an opportunity again expand. They began to sell al tomobiles. gradually adding this lir of cars or that lines until today the have possibly the largest line of auto mobile makes handled in Arizona. al being handled by them all over u north, in Phoenix and as far east
 OFFICE FORCE A