The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1919-11-13
| etters from the eople

sales, thereby making his total ex-
penses on all goods delivered, thirty
per cent. IF he gets five per cent pro-
| fit, he must get thirty-fve per cent
on those goods. Of course he doesn't
get it, so you ask for an explanation
and he can tell you that only about
one-third of his goods are delivered,
Lso that his actual delivery cost on his
gross sales is only about five per cent,
making his total expenses twenty per
! cent, and if he lived as merchant
ought to live, subscribed to every
darned little old thing that the town
demanded of him from the band boys
to the Salvation Army and from the
Ladies' Aid to the Red Cross and from
Sunday school picnics to Liberty bonds
he would have to have at least twen-
ty-fve per cent on every dollars worth
of goods sold to break even and that
is certainly a pretty high price to pay
for the distribution and only one dis
tribution at that. And there are many
other distributions on many articles,
some of which equal or exceed the first
cost of production.
| want to return little while to the
delivery system. If any one should
ask any merchant why he tried to
maintain free delivery system he
will tell you he is afraid to cut it out
for fear Of losing those customers who
have been getting delivery. But why
should he be afraid to lose business
that costs him thirty per cent to ham
die when the most he can hope to make
is twenty-five per cent? Better get
along without that trade. The only
way any store can maintain a so-called
free delivery system is to tax the ones
who do not get particle of benefit
out of it as well as those who do. And
that is unfair. Suppose this produce
company that / have been telling you
about should branch out and try to
compete for some of the business of
the other stores by offering free de-
livery to the town patrons. / have
tried to show you that the total ex-
pense of that store was ten per cent
and the others twenty-five, and that
free delivery cost at least five per cent
of all goods sold. If ,one-third were
delivered that would make the expense
fifteen per cent, leaving only ten per
cent for the stockholders. BY getting
this class of buyers who buy in very
much smaller quantities they would re-
quire more help in the store and more
expense all along the line and if they
succeeded in getting enough of this
trade there would never be a cent left
for the stockholders, and this is the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth.
/ was working in house one morn
ing, very nice house, indeed, and the
owners were very nice people. saw
the lady go to the telephone and or
der two loaves of bread, worth at that
time five cents each. "And send them
right up, in time for dinner, too" AT
another place the order was a dozen
eggs. In either case the delivery
cost would have been more than the
value of the goods, or twice as much
in one case and about as much in the
other, as eggs were only worth about
thirty cents. Now, if lightning had
struck the telephone wires while these
ladies were holding the receivers to
their ears they would have received
quite a shock no doubt, but if the
merchant at the other end of the wire
had told them the truth and the whole
truth they would have dropped stone
dead. If he had said he would send
it up as soon as possible with % cents
delivery charge attached to the bill,
which he could and should have added,
the lady would surely have told him
(if she was not killed outright) what
she thought of that kind of business.
But it is strictly business, just the
same, and simple justice.
Now, what is the remedy? Is there
a remedy? Certainly; here it is. This
happened in this same town of X,
about two years ago. A statment came
out in the local papers like this: On
and after (naming near future date)
there will be no more free delivery in
this town. There will be delivery
for those who need it and wish it and
are willing to pay for it at actual cost
but no other. In lieu of this we
agree to sell any article in our stores
on and after that date five per cenr
cheaper than it is today. This was
signed by every grocery dealer in town
and went into effect on the date named
and has worked to perfection ever
since. The town was districted into