The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1920-01-23
Cash and Garry System.

hadn't Kept up-tO-date with his store.
We found the stock of merchandise
and put In modern methods. put
that store on a spot-cash basis. be-
lieve really the caSh-and-carry and
charge-for-delivery service is the right
and modern and only way. so | put in
the cash system. We would also pay
farmers SpOt-caSh for their produce.
AS soon as we had the store re-
arranged we got a stock in that coun-
try store. The merchant from whom
we bought didn't have $500 worth Of
fall merchandise ordered in Septem-
Der, and was going out TO buy some
then. We put in about $4,000 worth
and got it opened up, sent out a per-
sonal letter showing u policy and
used q dOuble-page spread in that pa
per with a circulation of about 700.
There were two papers in the town.
One was a nonpartisan and the other
an old stand pat" paper and they
brought out this advertisement in both
papers. That Saturday afternoon
when the sale opened | was in another
city. My brother had charge of the
store. | t%elephoned him: "How's it
goingT
Opens Branch Store.
II wish you could be here to see It,"
he said. That's all right" | said,
but are you doing any ~business?' He
said: "Oh! | think it will run about
$4,000" The sale ran a little over 3d.
POO. We sold in that country store TO
the ladies, coats for $40, $50 and
$165. Shoes at So and SIG. All they
wanted was the opportunity to buy.
That is why these mail-Order houses
are doing business. There were cata-
logues sent out there TO do just that
kind of stuff. Can You blame them for
buying when these people have their
catalogues right at their door? These
people are making an appeal in a high
class way. We ran that sale and cOn-
tinued it for a week, and it was very
attractive.
The next Saturday l said to my son
1--WE ought to make q real good show
Ing since we started out SO well. You
have q friend with a Curtiss airpiane.
Phone the boy and see if you can
get him to fly up here with his plane"
He came up. We put an ad in the
paper about it-that we were going
to give them a ride in the plane and
to come in. When the day came, the
young man took those people out for
SIS for 10 minutes and so much for
each succeeding minute. | know one
Of the farmers stayed up 40 minutes
after the allotted time.
After we ran that sale, we wanted
to clean that store. We replaced all
the stock and put all h old stuff In
the basement for a reconstruction sale.
1t was all out-of-date stuff. Some Of
the stock was in the store for 10 and
16 years. | remember there were some
ladies' jackets with pulled sleeves. We
didn't try to deceive the people about
It. We told them We were going TO
sell this stuff for $4 or So, and the
material could be worked out by the
housewife, so that it could be used.
Then Saturday we cleaned most Of it
up.
/ have asked q great many mer-
chants gatherings: Have you ever
written a personal appeal to the peO-
pie in your territory, asking them for
their patronage; that you wOuld like
TO have them come in and see your
Ii is Once out of ten times that n mer-
chant will ever say he has done that.
Don't you believe you could get in
touch with your people perSpnal!yf
Through the medium of the press, you
can get in touch with them right along.
and the snappier you make your al,
the closer you are going to get in
touch with them"
There is a wonderful thing in serv-
ice. We have one price to all. A
child twelve years old could come into
the store and buy exactly the same as
an older person. We not only give
service, but a protective guarantee
with every sale. 1t is a wonderful
thing, / think. l can remember n
Illustration. Some of these cheaper
garments DON'T wear very Wen. "A
school teacher came into the store TO
buy q coat. She bought one. and
came In later, saying: 81 had to pay
SIS for this coat and see how 1t has
worn off. Do you think 1t is giving
satisfaction" She had q very worried
look on her face. | sem the coat into
the house, and they said they would
do the best they could. They wanted
to do their share. would Ii be all
right to go 50-50?" | said that would
be all right just for the satisfaction it
would give that girl.
Three Per Cent for Advertising.
To my mind, If you are not spending
In the clothing business 3 per cent OF
the gross sales for advertising, you
are losing a wonderful opportunity
Mr.. Hart said to me last week in Chi
cago: Don't spend less than 8 pei
cent. If you went out shooting ducks
and had a double barrel shotgun, you
wouldn't think what the cost Of the
other shell was. You would fire bott