The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-03-06
ICES YOU ARE LOOKING FOR-COME HERE TOMC
EDITORIAL

III IiliS d1blClc " IS my QeSlre to have just little heart to heart and common sense talk to my many friends and customers and to all those who wonder at my most phenominal success in business. To the best of my ability I am go- ing to explain just how and why am so successful in C. nducting my business and my business affairs.
 In the first place, never try to attend to other peoples business. have always made it rule in my life and in conducting my business never to abuse my neighbor and to let him do with his affairs as he wishes. Second, in handling the merchandising of my establish ment, 1 do my own buying and in doing my buying l never trust to the one l buy from the picking of the merchandise. do my own se- lecting. select the styles that l think best or think that my cus- toners want. know there are great many buyers who go to mar ket and depend almost entirely upon the manufacturers or some particular manufacturer to do the selecting. For instance, some of these buyers and some of the larg- est buyers in the country, go to a manufacturer, we'll say of suits or dresses, and say to this manufac- turer, "Give me twenty-five gar ments to sell for $25.0O and twenty-five garments to sell for $S0.0O." They leave the selec- S.& ay$x $n %hA manufacturer, and I honestly ask you, do you think that manufac- turer thousands of miles away can select the garment that would be most pleasing to you? He does not know your tastes; he does not know tl,e styles you wear; there fore, 1 make my own selection be- cause know you, know my cus- toners and know just exactly the things that you will like to buy and I know when offer you these gar- ments l am giving you the best that can be bought or selected. At the end of last years business our stock on hand did not amount to 9 per cent of our sales for the entire year, because the way | buy we H. year and if l do not make a net profit of over half per cent, you can see for yourself that I can make and will make all the money that I am entitled to make. All the merchandise I sell today is merchandise bought on today's lowest market level, therefore, when we advertise a reduction in price it really means real reduc- ton because we own no merchan- disc bought on the extreme high market price level. If a merchant who does not turn his stock over as we do advertises his merchan- disc at 5Oc on the dollar, and this merchant will be perfectly sincere in his advertising and his state ments, the one buying does not buy any bargain, because if merchan- disc such as crepe de chine and other sorts of yard goods and other such things that was bought eight or nine months ago and carried over until now, or bought last April when crepe de chine was $2.25 wholesale, such merchandise if offered today at fifty cents on the dollar, you would not be buying a bargain when you bought it, but would be- pa ying more than my reg ular price would be, because thirty days ago we bought this same crepe de chine at 75c a yard, there fore when I sell it to you at profit it is cheaper to you than for you to buy that that is adver- tised at fifty cents on the dollar, even though that same merchant lost on what he sold you. And now another thing. When ging- hams were 37 E yard last April, today we buy this same gingham at 161sc yard, and when we sell you our gingham bought on to- days market at legitimate profit, which we doL you are buying it less from us than you would be paying if you bought from the man who turns his stock slowly and sold it to you at soc on the dollar, or 40c on the dollar or any other such price. A real merchant must know when to unload his merchandise before the great big break comes so as to protect his customers with the lower priced merchandise when the lower price arrive. And 1t IS the successful merchant who ad- vises his customers when to buy big and when not to buy. We have not carried over any mer- \ chandise to amount to anything from last year, in fact 1 could give away every dollars worth of mer- chandfse I have on hand carried over from last year and it would not make anybody rich and 1t would not make me. poor. l would be no loser. I want to tell all my friends frankly that l do a busi- ness on a profit basis. must make a profit or cannot keep in busi- ness, therefore, I must buy right and sell to make a profit, and l promise you and tell you frankly that whatever sell you am going to make little profit. l hope you will digest these ideas of mine and then decide yourself where the best place is for you to buy your merchandise. l have never been one to advise my customers to be heavy buyers, but now on my re- turn from the markets 1 want to impress on you this fact, I believe that now is the time for you to buy and buy what you want, be careful in your selections, but be sure and get all that you expect to need, be- cause I believe hat you are going to pay more for a great many things later on than you will be asked to pay now and especially than you will be as,,ed to pay now in my store. Frankly, believe that on a lot of merchandise there will absolutely be famine later, you won't be able to get it if you want it, therefore, buy now and