The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1919-09-17


johnson Makes the Competition
There's a whole lot in display,
says Johnson. ST there isn't, why
do the big city stores spend so much
on it? N.Y. store window costs me a
lot, but know that it pays. 1t not
only advertises the seasonable goods
on sale, but it advertises my store
in a general way, makes it talked
about, and it advertises the town.
1 Il was in another country town
about the size OF this last July, and
1.-THE leading merchant had a crosscut
saw in the window. He was complain.
ing about poor business and how the
mail order houses were cutting into
him. I asked him: l." .'@t se-
"'When did you hang that crosscut
saw in the window"
| "Last fall "1>. ~ 500,
| t".'Well shucks,' says l.. did you
ever sell a crosscut saw in July?'
"'Come to think of it, I never did,
he says. y @
"'No, and you never will People
buy crosscut saws only when they're
going to saw wood, and that's in cold
weather. That being the case, why
not take down the saw and put some
thing folks do buy in July?' l asked
him.
HE had never thought of that. Too
many store keepers are like him and
/ then they sit round and chew tobacco
and cuss the mail order houses. Too
many country merchants pay too lit
tie attention to displaying goods"
A travelling man asked Johnson If
mail order competition bothered him
much. 'Competition? Why, I'm the
competition in this community" he
said. II don't give the folks round
here chance to look at a mail order
catalogue. I've heard a good deal
OF now the mail order catalogue is the
bible of the farmer and 4 heard a
story the other day of baby that was
born in a farm home and visitor
asked the little girl where the new
baby came from. Oh she said, we
picked it from the catalogue That
didn't happen near here. 4 My son is
the head of our women's ready to
wear department.. He goes to New
York twice a year and buys in the
same market the mail order houses
buy inland he buys with better taste
and knowledge of the needs here, and
we can sell just as low. We get the
finest PICTURES Of our garments that
artists can make and print them in
our monthly Store News. We are not
afraid of any mail order house on that
''In fact, we do a big mail order bus
mess ourselves. We get from twenty
five to fifty orders by mail day from
as far away as sixty and seventy
miles. The mail order business has
never worried me. ..
II never permit anyone in this store
to cririze anyone for buying from mail
order houses. A farmer has just as
much right to order from Chicago as
have to buy, in New York If l can
buy goods in Nebraska as cheap and
as good as l can elsewhere, ! buy
here; otherwise l go outside. buy
where l can buy best. The farmer
has the same right. Any merchant
who questions that right has more
nerve than l. 80 txr%
81 never run down a mail order
house nor its goods. The big mail or
der houses are legitimate and on the
square, and their merchandise is just
as good as mine. The only thing
they do in business way ,thatis not
right is when they pretend that they
can undersell me in this territory.
They can't do it.
II never put up the plea that be-
cause I live here and pay taxes here
the people ought to buy from me: nor
that they ought to buy in their home
town and nowhere else. If used
that argument, then the little store
keepers In all the towns round here
could use it against me and urge their
people not to go to Johnson's.
There is "a great chance for small
town merchants If they'll only get it
tout Of their heads that 1t IL the duty