The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1918-02-01

drug stores, furniture men and even
livery stables, in fact all lines of bust
ness represented in our good town
| am sure that the Chamber of Com
merce would be glad to undertake
such move and through their help
the cooperation of all retailers should
be gained.
| should like to have you erase from
the dictionary the word, Competitor"
II this could be done and the word,
Cooperation substituted therefor,
you would all profit thereby. If the
cooperation of body of men such
as would be represented by an asso-
citation composing the retail mer-
chants of this city could be gained
there would be practically nothing
which it could not accomplish. The
first thing which 1t occurs to me it
could do profitably would be to estab-
fish credit rating bureau. BY this
means you could protect yourselves
against dead-beats. There need be no
feeling of unfairness or reticence in
divulging the names of your custo-
mers because the way it would be OPP
Grated as has been heretofore sug-
gested by the Chamber of Commerce
would not in any way let any dealer
know the names of another dealers
customers. think that if the cost of
operating your business was figured
out on a scientific basis that you
would find that you had better make
quick sales and more of them for
cash and at less profit than to make
fewer sales and carry them on the
books.
During the present serious times
through which We are now passing
the prices of great many articles es-
pecially in the grocery business have
been fixed by the Government. The
profit is limited. If the Government
fixes the profit at which you can sell
an article, the only way you can make
money is by cutting down your over
head expenses. There is a consider
able amount Of money wasted in this
town in the delivery of goods by hav-
ing all delivery wagons or trucks
travel over the same routes every day
where one truck could do the same
amount of work. If the private deliv-
cry wagons of this town could be en-
tirely eliminated, and the Retail Mer-
chants Association operate one or
maybe two trucks running on sched-
ule time and picking up packages at
the store of each member of the as
ISOLATION and delivering them at their
destination, deliveries could be made
quicker and roughly speaking
should say at one-fourth of the cost.
Your customers would soon get &C
customed to ordering their goods in
the morning in time to catch the nine
o'clock delivery. If there were two
trucks operating one East of the
bridge and one West of the bridge
there could possibly be three deliv-
cries a day which is as much as any
house holder could expect.
In Cincinnati the Retail Merchants
Association is doing everything in its
power to encourage customers to car
ry small packages home with them.
What can be done in Cincinnati, can
be done in Maysville.
Let me impress upon you the i'm
portance of keeping step with retail
business in other cities. Study their
methods carefully II 1t is not posi-
BILE for you to make frequent visits
to inform yourselves Of their ways of
handling business under modern con-
dition. subscribe to some good trade
papers and read them carefully.
These papers will give you valuable
suggestions about conducting your
own affairs and also, believe, in the
matter of window decoration.
The Retail Merchants window is a
silent salesman which can be made to
do much or little good according to
the amount of thought and labor you
put into 1t. II people pass your win
dows and see the same thing display
ed from day to day until they are dis
colored, by the sun and covered with
dust II is hard to get them to look in
to your window after they become ac-
customed to seeing the same thing 30
often. Change your display rs often
as you can. There IL no window too