The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-04-14

For the Distribution of Merchandise,
Therefore There Is a Close Relation
Between the Retail Merchant and the
Success of His City.
Why is a city2
Because there must be a central
place for the distribution of merchan-
disc, says DR.. Frank Stockdale In the
Town Development Magazine.
Cities and towns were originally ere.
ated for this purpose, and they have
never lost this primary function, ever
with the addition of manufacturing In
terests.
This being so, 1t Is easy to see the
close relationship between the retail
merchant and the success of his city.
The people follow commerce. If the
merchant through his retail business
fails to provide that standard of bar
ter and exchange the people demand
his city will suffer as a city. l chal.
lenge any one to point to a city that IL
known as a live city that does not have
alert, progressive and aggressive
merchants. By the same token you
will find the dead, declining city the
home of merchants who are dead &c
their opportunities and to the posi-
bilities of retail merchandising.
Every dollar that goes across the
counter of a store puts so cents into
circulation. This money goes to pay
salespeople, landlords, bankers, deliv-
cry men, insurance, taxes and every
other kind Of contribution toward the
upbuilding Of the local community. If
those 80 cents are being put into circu-
lation infrequently that community as
a whole will feel the lack of those
things which go to make it a desirable
place in which to live and work.
The development Of his city Is in a
large measure directly up to the retail
merchant. In the degree In which he
develops or fails to develop those things
which make for good merchandising
his city will be developed or retarded.
In saying this l do not wish to add
anything more to the already heavy
burdens the retail merchant now car
ries, but they are facts Of existence
and progress in u city life which
must be faced.
This is not a criticism of retail mer-
chants either individually or collective
ly. They are not wholly responsible
for the evolution in business that has
taken place in this country in the last
ten years. They cannot be wholly
blamed for the fact that their competi-
ton has shifted from the fellow across
the street to the department stores of
the larger cities and the mail order
concerns of national scope. Improved
transportation and means of communi-
cation have brought these things about,
and the average retail merchant finds
himself facing a condition for which
he Is Ill prepared. He finds the condi-
lions of merchandising changed almost
overnight, while he and his store re
main the anne. But he cannot shirk
the responsibility that affects him di-
rectly and every member of his com-
munity indirectly. This is the respon-
sibility of keeping at home the trade
which Is drifting away, carrying with
1t in its drift the people who make his
city and all that city stands for.
The situation, however, is not hope
less. The retail merchant is awaken
ing to his problems and Is finding the
method Of solving them. Just 10Y he
Is pausing long enough to analyze the
whole problem which confronts him.
The retail merchant has at last real
lied the vital and fundamental fact
that all the competition that has been
and Is causing him worry is competi-
ton that uses that modern weapon
advertising.
The retailer has taken stock of him
self in a measure, and he finds that
the only competition that has ever real
ly disturbed him and his community
from the merchants who adyer-
tise. Today he also realizes that adj
yertising is not merely a matter of
space. He must use space, but he
must use that space to say something
really worth while. And to say scme-
thing that is really worth while he
must 60 something that is really worth
willie. Stripped of yerbiage, the whole
proposition comes back to one of COM
voon cooro o,,J ofhoiono, ~ ,.o+o;1;nn