Arizona republican., 1921-08-07
By George H. Moriarty, Manager
 Harold l.. Arnold's Arizona


 ~s Branch.
 Conditions in the state Of Arizona within the last few months have down a substantial increase in that sAles have picked up to quite an ex tent and business today. although not up to the standard cf last year b as good as could be expected.
 There are so many of us today com- pairing our present day sales with the returns that we had at this time last year. This IS where we are making our fatal mistake. First we must Consider the fact that we were sell Mg our merchandise last year at from go per cen tt 50 per cent higher. while prices this year have dropped n some cases below replacement xAlue, and the thing that we should take into consideration is the fact faat are we selling as many units of merchandise this year as we were in 1918. In other words, we are selling as many pairs of shoes, dresses, hats and automobiles as we did in 1919 It is not the financial return that we should base our business on these dAys.-that is if we are going to compare OUT business with inflated prices that we were selling our mer- ehandise at the last year or so.
 Just as suggestion, really do think that it would be a good thing for every one of we merchants to draw red pencil through our books for the year 1920 starting at January 1st and ending December 31st. In ether words let us forget that we were in business in 1920. It will be hetter for us.
 | Prices are today at rock bottom Ievel on most every commodity. We 4hould give our organizations thor qngh going over, taking every ad- vantage Of the labor that we are using. Let us do little of the work ourselves fav4 our employees CO., operate with us in every way that they can. We must keep our ex- penses on a basis of a certain per- centaEe of the daily or monthly re- turns. We thoroughly agree that it takes as much time for a clerk this year to sell an article for 75 cents as it did to sell this customer the same article last year at S1.50. But, let t3s drill our clerks to try to sell each customer several other items. In 4kher words let us today become real, Hse and enthusiast salesmen.
 5I>ast year the majority of us were mere order takers and not salesmen. 0UlLe lOt or tnlS laxlty III SdleSmdn- fhip was due to the employer He 0a4 lax in his supervision. How many times have we advised a clerk i1 our employ that if a customer did HDt want certain article that they d1d not have to take it. and to put H hack on the shelf, that someone would be glad to have it? You can 8adfly see that we are today getting &e rebound of this supervision, and IF ie now up to us to resell our em- Hover the fact that we are after 0e business, that we want it and Tant 1t bad, because this is the day Q keen competition and many com Mtitors and we wnnt to out think 6em rather than out talk them.
 The people of Arizona today are Conservative lot They should be. They have had soft times, and they lave see, them go. They are not ipw as apt to come into our estab- Ailments and take our merchandise 6ray from us as they were. They want someone to sell them merchan- d3se. Practically every line of mer- dhandiHe that is classed as a neces- Gity today can be sold just as well as last year and in the same quantities But, we will have to sell it, and not merely take orders for it.