Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1918-11-02
FALSE ECONOMY
HAS NO Value
Buying Cheap Goods lust Be-
cause They Are Cheap Does
Not Pay.
QUALITY OFTEN OVERLOOKED
Instance Seen In Case of Mail Order
Houses Which Make Their APP
peal Solely on Basis of
Price.

Copyright. 1917. Western Newspaper Union)
Economy IS one of the greatest of
virtues but false economy is no more
virtue than anything else that is
false. To be able to economic wisely
Is one of the greatest blessings that
one can have, for it is the prerequisite
to thrift and well-being. Too many
persons, however, who think they have
found the secret of true economy are
practicing a false economy which is
worse than wilful waste.
For instance, the man who buys q
stove from a mail order house for 50
because he thinks he would have to
pay $40 for one if he purchased it
from his home merchant, is practicing
a false economy, for the chances are
that he would save more than 81 In
the end If he purchased the $40 stove
from the local hardware leader.
There are several reasons why this
is false economy. The first one is that
dollar for dollar, the greater part of
the merchandise sold by the mail or
der houses Is of less value than that
sold by the retail merchants of the
smaller communities. The mail order
business, as a whole Is built upon
cheapness. In order to attract Gus
toners the catalogue houses must sell
goods cheaply and in order 70 do that
they must sell cheap goods. Their
business is built up on price and not
on quality. The retail hardware deal
er, like retail dealers in other lines,
probably can match the prices of the
mail order houses. He probably has
50 stove which he can sell to the
man who wants to get stove for 50.
The trouble is that the man who buys
from the mail order house does not
distinguish between price and quality.
Thinks He Is Eeonomizing.
The man who buys the SO stove
from the mail order house probably
would not buy a SO stove from his
local merchant for In the latter case
he would see just what he was buying
and might realize that the SO stove
would not meet his needs. He orders
a 50 stove from the mail order house,
however, just because the price is SO
and not because he has any assurance
that the stove will meet his needs. He
thinks he is saving dollar or two by
buying this stove instead of paying
$40 or 81 to the home merchant for
one that he has seen and knows will
give him satisfaction. The chances
are that when the stove arrives and
he has used 1t for a short time he
will realize that he has practiced false
economy-that it would have been
more economical in the end for him to
pay a dollar or two more to his home
merchant and get an article that was
guaranteed by the dealer.
The patron of the mail order house,
also, often fails to take the matter of
transportation charges into considera-
ton when making his purchase. He
sees only the price of the article as
listed In the mail order catalogue and
does not think of the express or freight
charges, which with the cost of a
money order and postage often make
the total cost of the article greater
than the price at which the same thing
could have been purchased at the local
store. Another case of false economy.