The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1922-05-12
MANKATo FREE PRESS


to have hard times for at least
twenty. five years.
| Prosperity and high prices have
nothing in common. II high prices
meant prosperity. which would be
world today? II would cost you
100000 rubles today to buy suit
in Russia. 1t would cost you. 1000
ruhles to send a first class letter
II high prices meant prosperity, OBJ :
viously country having prices
which have reached such high lew
els would be the most prosperous in
the world. In reality, OF course,
high prices have nothing to do
with prosperity. The only rela-
ton is this: How much in commo-
dities can man get for what he
earns by his labor? How much will
his effort buy him? Seven hundred
years ago. the workmen building
Westminster Abbey and the Towe.
OF London were paid a penny and
work. If that would buy them the
same quantity of commodities s.
the salary OF a workman today
then those workmen of TOO years
ago were just as prosperous as our
workrnen today because 1t Is what
we can get with what we earn that
decides whether we are prosperous.
AS prices fall the purchasing power
of the dollar comes up, so from the
standpoint of the general public,
this constant fuotuation in prices
means practically nothing. While
I prices are going up. the value OF
the dollar is falling and when pric-
es are coming down the purchasing
power OF the dollar is going up.
From the standpoint OF mer.
chandising this means big proc
lem. We will have to do business
for the next twenty five years on
a falling market instead of doing
business on rising market as we
have for the past quarter - cen
tlry. Very few Of our present bus
mess people have had personal ex-
perience in doing ousiness as we
will be required to do it for the
next quarter of century. There
is all the difference in the world
between buying and selling on a
rising market and a falling one.
What Is the Effect
Now what is the effect of buy
ing and selling on falling market?
We have just had a chance to see
what that means. We have to buy
infinitely more carefully on fall
ing market. Let US say we buy a
hundred cases of merchandise this
month and at the end Of the month
we have fifty cases left in stock.
In the meantime, the price has fall
could replace the fifty cases we
now have in stock for $500 less than
we paid a month ago. Thus we
have suffered loss Of $500 over
bought. Buying close to your needs
and estimating your needs and care
fully enters into the question of
!! merchandising today.
81 have had jobbers and whole.
salers say that they would rather
sell in large Quantities for six
months ahead and cut out handling
charges. That is very shortsight-
ed policy. The prosperity of the
Jobber and wholesaler is absolutely
bound up with the prosperity of the
retailer, and If any jobber promul.
gates a policy disastrous to the re-
disastrous to him. Everyone In
the business of distributing mer.
chandise must seek and And the
best policy for everybody. the policy
which means the greatest possible
prosperity sfor every link in the
chain of merchandising.
| we recognize today the fact that
retailers must estimate their posi-
Bile market more closely than ever
before. We don't have to talk TO
persuade the retailer to underbuy;
in fact. probably 81 per cent OF the
retailers today are underbuying
They are afraid they may not be
able to sell. 1t is not so easy to sell
1o1y ~
thought that restraints the mer.
straining customers from stocking
up. There never was a buyer
strike. Buyers strike was a clever
term but what really hapepned was
the individual himself or herself
stopped to think, saying prices are
failing fast; they will probably
reach the bottom in couple OF
month and pus off buying until the
bottom was reached. So ] say the
best message you can send out to
your customers is, if you people are
going to stop buying until prices
reach the bottom, you are going to
stop living, because the price line
will go down for thirty years. You
might just as well start buying
right now because while prices, in
S.oSLnS LAC .PH4Sp VI iduoT WnlCH Is
So large proportion OF all costs.
will keep on falling and the value Of
the dollar will keep on coming up to
meet them In the meantime,
however, we have to meet greater
sales resistance than ever before.
i Retailers Are Sellers
Nest Of the selling in America is
done Of course by retail salespeople.
II isn't done by highly skilled
speciality statesmen. And those SAL
espeople look upon the proposition
OF creating desire and concentrating
1t upon certain goods as work. HUI.
man nature naturally. flees from
work and retail salespeople in the
past four or five years have not had
to. sell goods. Their time has been
taken up explaining why they
couldn't deliver them or in merely
delivering them. imagine that con
dition has been universal AS a
result we find today that we are
Obliged to meet an increased re.
sistance with a very much lowered
pressure. -, ; =
There are just two phases OF
business in America, if we make
the division general, namely, pro.
duction and distribution. / presume
most of you are more interested
IN distribution than in production
so let US consider distribution. |
like to compare the process of dis J
trribution to the creation OF a vast
pipe line leading from a great tsfle
into which the producer pours isis
manufactured article. The first
link in the pipe line of Distribution
lie fbS rnarcb a - d;sI, fhroirar' ,rL1 =