The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1922-01-26
BOOSTERS ALL


DISCUSSION which has follow
- ed the publication two weeks
ago of the farmers" editorial
has emphasized the fact that, af-
ter all, buying out of town is to
a large degree mere matter of
habit-and a bad habit.
Habits invariably are the re-
suits of carelessness and of
thoughtlessness. The buying
out-of-town habit is no exception
to the rule.
The Courier-Reporter has no
desire at this time to argue with
the farmer and his wife over the
point that they can save money
by sending to Sears Roebuck, or
with the bankers or the editors
wife that they can get what they
want by sending to the Crescent
or going to Pasco For the r. es-
ent we are willing to admit that
these claims are real, even tho
we ACTUALLY believe in some
measure they are imaginative.
There are, however, some
phases of out-of-town buying
which cannot be justified by
claims of superiority either of
price, quality, or ervice-thot-
less buying; careless buying;
buying from habit; buying that
leaves us in the silly posture of
trying to lift ourselves by our
boot straps.
For instance, in the boosters
catalogue of Kennewick's future,
the possibilities for building here
a considerable jObbing center is
written large. Enthusiastic in
that belief the boosters (and the
editor was one of them) induced
certain men to invest their cap
ital and become Kennewick's pi-
oneer wholesale merchants. How
many of these same boosters to-
day buy, or know the bran11 IS of
goods handled by the KenneWick
Wholesale Grocery?
Not many of us know because
we have drifted into the habit
of not knowing and the Whole
sale grocery has never cultivated
the habit of making us know.
There is no reason why practic-|
ally every retail grocery store in
town should not be supplied by
the Kennewick Wholesale Groc-
cry. That it doesn't supply them
is due in part to the retailers fool
notion that he must have some
thing different from his Compel
itor and to our fool notions that
we must have certain label
because it looks pretty or be-
cause we became accustomed to
it "back home" or because sis
ter Mary who married a city cap
ittalist and keeps a Jap chef
uses it.
Altogether, with our fool no
tions we are tugging at our boot
straps and sending thousands of
dollars to the wholesale houses of
Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and
elsewhere which pave
no Kennewick streets, build no
county roads, employ no Kenne-
wick labor, nor which find their
way into the Kennewick banks
or the tills of the local butcher,
baker, and auto fixer.
1t isn't the question of price
or quality. AS a matter of fact
some of the brands of goods
handled by Kennewick Whole
Grocery and other wholesale
groceries of the Northwest grew
in the same field, were cooked in
the same kettle and packed in the
same factory but put out under
different labels for distribution
to different jobbers. We buy
them at the same price and from
habit insist there is a difference.
We expect the local wholesale
house to succeed and flourish,
yes indeed. We expect the re-
tailers of Pasco, Two Rivers, and
Toppenish, ETC., to buy it's goods
and the people of those towns to
demand the Kennewick label,
but.
The same thing is true of the
creamery. To the people of e
community a brick of Lucerne
butter should mean something
more than just a hunk of butter.
Under every label there is a
story-a story of the ebb and
flow of this community's en-
thusiasm over the dairy indus
try; a story of the business men
letting lose of one boot strap
long enough and often enough to
write checks to help refinance
A. u - - ~,