The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1918-09-13
EDITORIAL MUSINGS.
troubles in The Five-Cent Store.

SS~~N
One of the principal five and ten
= Gent store managers in Washington
gESGus that cit is about time to tie
. EfhescTepe on the five cent piece of our
tSorefa theirs, since you can no longer
Dny d good five cent cigar, a package
cigarettes, a full grown orange, or
a roll of 1ife-saver candies with it,
FSfIEe the number of articles sold for
fkhe scoIn in the stores with the red
fronts are becoming fewer in num-
Der The same authority declares
that the fve-cent piece has shriveled
= unn it actually represents about
soneAalf the purchasing power that it
: had Sin the days when WooIworth,
Kresge, McCrory, ct ell, discovered
their recipes for getting rich.
glerk's wages in the five and ten
cent stores. have advanced from fifty
&oone hundred per cent. The differ
. enI elements surrounding the kind of
merchandising are of a good deal of
2 Interest at the present time, when the
druggist has nothing left on his
shelves that sells for five cents, and
NheA the grocer refuses to cut off
senough cheese to bait a mouse trap
der sess than a ten cent coin. The
nickel is struggling hard to main
tain its ancient responsibility in the
commercial world, but as it lost out
lin rsse iitney experiment, so is it los
= ing. ont Ia all lines of trade and in
'dustSy The Woolworth stores are
a.
iy sf handling only five and ten cent
@riid1es of merchandise, but in doing
This cloth off the bolt that formerly
suN by the yard is now displayed at
ten cents for quarter yard,
Writing paper in bulk and in pack
cages remains in the Ave cent zone,
1utashrinkage in quantity and deter
r igMtion in quality forbids that the
viii move into the ten
" cent class. The Kresge and Nc
CvFy esta blishments are DESERVING
ave andTten cent standards, and in
Vulnerable articles have been ad-
yanced by them to fifteen, twenty and
twenty-five cents, and even higher.
TInware and earthenware, for in
yestance, that has permanently parted
company with the Woolworth stores
> gince it can no longer be sold within
: their price limits, remains on the
- .shelves and counters of the 'inde-
ape1denfs," but at the advanced fig
ures.
The cake of soap on the fve-cent
counter is getting so small that one
Will be compelled to look for it with
> - spy glass before long; five-cent
and nothing less than a ten cent
piece accomplishes their removal
from a store of the 1ve-and-teners.
e. The five cent package of needles is
NO more, and the girls at the counter
tells you that imported goods like
them that comes over from England
= and France can't be sold no more for
less than ten cents, and you're
mighty lucky to get them so cheap"
: Handkerchiefs are not imported, but
they have kissed the five-cent counter
"a permanent goodbye, and now dis
= port themselves" among ten cent
goods. The -nve-cent counter of pins
that never were any good at any
price, have shown an ambition to i'm
prove their status in society, and they
have started TO climb the price lad
der. with the result that they have
already changed their relations with
TIE purchasing power of the nickel.
Safety pins have much the same rec
ord. and instead of two cards for
nickel they are now exactly double
-xt2. pr.ce. Glassware has had dis