Arizona republican., 1922-05-15
Laziness Is One Cause
Of Economic Condition
Roger w. Babson States

yards is abnormally great. In short.
the retailer, urder present economic
conditions. really needs this appar-
emily abnormal profit which he is
getting. The truth is that retailing
has become SD complicated that the
retailer is tho victim of circumstances
ever which he has little control.
"My thoughts" continued Mr.. Bah
son, ego back to boyhood days in
Gloucester, Massachusetts. There
was a butcher shop near my home
where we used to buy our meaT.
can see it now with the hams and
bacon hanging up on the wall, a big
block in the center Of the store be-
hind which was a fat healthy butch
e., the proprietor of the establish
ment, and the sole employe. When
my father wanted some beef he gave
m the money and sent me to the mar
ket to get it. The butcher gave me
the cut my father desired, wrapped
it in a brown paper and / took IT
home, paying cash for the same. The
price of good beef in those days was
20 to 80 cents a pound. There, how
ever We're no deliveries and the
butcher didn't spend anything on Ice
in the winter time for remember the
frost there used to be on those butch
er store windows, although the
butcher was healthy and happy
man.
To-day the same store Is used for
a butcher shop but it is steam heated,
and the proprietor buys nearly as
much ice in the winter as he does
in the summer. Moreover, the pro-
prietor does not cut any meat him~
self. Mornings he usually is found
in the store, but afternoons he is
usually out automobiling. He has a
bookkeeper who keeps the accounts,
big cash register, two clerks, ard
man who runs the delivery auto
mobile. Owing to possible break
downs he has two automobiles. Not
only is everything run on much
more expensive basis but the clerks
don't do more than a half a days
work. They see the proprietor loaf
ing and they loaf themselves. None
of them have any interest in the
business and each one is trying to
get by with as little work as pos
sible,
"The fundamental question is
whether or not this store is selling
any more pounds Of beef and provi
sions than it did 20 years ago. /
know the rent has doubled and other
expenses have tripled and quadrupled
but l seriously doubt If this store Is
selling any more goods. Gloucester
hasn't as much population as it had
20 years ago, and there are more
butcher shops. 1t is probably true
that people are eating more meat per
capita now than in those days, but l
am very sure that the output of this
shop is no greater than it was 20
years ago. Today, however. when
one of the neighbors wants steak she
no longer sends her boy to get it.
| (He is probably busy playing football
or practicing for a high school MINIS
trel show or perhaps he is at the
movies) Today the mother tele-
| phones to the butcher shop, the book
| keeper enters the order on an elabo-
rate filing system, this in turn is Civ
en- to one of the clerks who cuts the
meat. The meat is then wrapped in
two or three pieces of paper, put In
a special basket and delivered by an
| auto truck costing two TO three
| thousand dollars. Moreover. the meat
| is charged to be billed at the end of
| the month and paid for when {and if}
| money is available.
/ "As a result, people today, under
| these conditions. must pay double or
| triple for their meat compared with
| wnat they paid 20 years ago. The
/
| boy of the home TO the proprietor
| himself, is lazy.
mo one wants to do anything him.
| self which he can possibly avoid.
/ Everyone is trying to spend as much
1 of his time as he can on amuse-
ments, automobiling and movies.
| Telephones, high schools and credit
systems are wonderful inventions, but
| they all tend to increase the cost of
| distribution The retailer is up
| against fashions and customs which
/ have bound him with ropes that are
| almost too strong to break. What
| the future will bring forth l do not
| know. 1t, however. is evident that
| the retailer is not TO blame for pres
ent conditions. You and !, as faith
ers and mothers, are to blame. Our
high schools are to blame. Retail
prices can be reduced only as the
spirit of work, thrift and usefulness
| again pervades the community.
! ITO meet this abnormal condition
and the resulting high cost of living"
concluded Mr.. Babson, "the chain
| store and the mail order house with
their centralized buying and cash and
carry system is rapidly invading ev-
| cry shopping center in the country,
together with some department stores
who are now following a scientific
1