Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press., 1921-04-25
MERCHANTS WILL ORGAN


IZE-lt seems practically assured
as result of the splendin meet
ing Of Fitzgerald merchants last
Friday night that the retail deal
ers of Fitzgerald will form an
organization of their own to work
for their mutual interests. That
means making possible close
cooperation between the men OF
affairs of Fitzgerald whose inter
ests are all identical. 1t means
making possible degree of pros
perity for Fitzgerald that it has
never experienced before.
The working man has improved
his condition one hundred per
rent in the last ten pears through
organized cooperation. T h e
farmers, wherever they are close
ly organized, have reaped i'm
mense benefits. The members of
every trade and profession in the
United States are organized and
have supplemented the spur of
individual competition with the
well filled manger of co-opera-
tive effort. A horse will make
certain amount of speed by the
use of spur but he can travel
faster and further if he has been
well fed. Cooperation will fur
nlsh the business for which the
merchants can compete with a
great deal more results.
Merchants in all large cities
and in many cities of Fitzgerald's
size are organized into Retail
Dealers Associations, or Adver-
tising Clubs, or similar organiza-
tons which have the interest of
the merchant exclusively and
heartily in view. a specialized
organization of the kind can do
much more to build up business
for a city than can a general or
ganization like the Chamber of
Commerce. The purpose of the
Chamber of Commerce is more
extensive but that OF the merch-
ants association is more intens~
i've.
The first big thing that a mer-
chants association could do for
Fitzgerald would be to effective
ly extend the trading radius of
It's members, Fitzgerald has, as
the Leader has called attention
to many times before, the finest
retail stores in this section. They
are on the average, better stock
ed, better and more attractively
arranged and are operated on
methods more satisfactory to their
customers than in any other cit
les or towns in a radius of thirty
or forty miles.
The merchants OF Fitzgerald
merit trade from a territory ex-
tending thirty or forty miles in
every direction. They have sup
Piled quality of goods, and at
prices, that would make it to the
interest of every family that owns
an automobile in six or seven ad-
joining counties to spend a day or
two every month shopping in
Fitzgerald, and for most of them
to come here several times a
week. And these people would
come to take advantage of the
good goods and good prices if
the merchants would draw them
here periodically by a co-opera-
tive sales effort, advertised thru
the entire section. If house
wife living two-hour's ride from
Fitzgerald could be induced to
come to Fitzgerald on two or
three successive special occasions
she would in a majority of cases
find It to her advantage to come
regularly.
The meeting of merchants on
Friday evening showed that the
time is ripe for a cooperative eff
fort along that line. The merch-
ants of the city DIS individuals
want to get together on great
many things. They appreciate
the value of cooperation, The
Chamber of Commerce is to be