Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-01
CASH SYSTEM
SAVEDDAK0TA,
MANN ASSERTS
Devils Lake Merchant Speaks
to Two Audiences in
Great Falls.

How to meet the mail order house.
how to sell goods. how to build the
community-question OF every merchant
-were the problems dealt with by
Fred P. Mann, whose success as a
merchant Of Devils Lake. n. D.. has
made him famous. He was the speaker
Of two husines mems meetings in Great
Falls Monday.
A general business message was
given by Mann at the Kiwanis luncheon
| meeting, when he was heard by 100
members of luncheon clubs of the city.
In the evening. the Palm room of the
Rainbow was filled while some stood in
the d%oorways, when the speaker spoke
or the more specific problems of the
merchant in advertising and those df
the sales people in selling merchandise.
I'm 1913, the business done in North
Dakota in the selling of all goods
amounted to 500. OOO,0OO." said Mann
Mt the luncheon. "The mail order house
got q third of that. or $4,000. 900. The
question was brought to my attention
by the state tax expert who was seek
ing a way to place a tax upon this
form of business drawing so much from
our state without making a return. /
saw that the only way to meet it was
to have u merchants take that bust
ness.
Surveyed 100 Towns
Our merchants association hired
four men to make a survey OF 1W0
towns of the state. They reported on
the conditions of the stores, how the
windows were dressed. how the stores
were managed and the reports were
damaging in showing how lax were the
stAroc nf Shnca tnrakccnarc I1 nor
cent didn't believe in advertising: IS
per rent advertised because they
thought it was good to have q news
paper in the town and were willing to
donate: 10 per cent advertised be-
cause they saw returns in it.
Il looked up the advertising that
the mail order house was doing. I found
that for that $780, 900. 900 business that
year, those mail order houses spent
10 per rem .S3,00O 900. for their ad-
vertising in the state. ! found that 76
carloads Of catalogues were shipped
into the state and that six carloads
came to Devils Lake alone.
THE merchants of the state said that
they couldn't meet the price of the
mail order house on some special
articles. so I went to st. Paul and
told those jobbers there of that steady
stream of purchases that went out of
North Dakota and never touched the
Twin Cities. I've always taken the po-
sition that the retailer is lust the
agent Of the jobber and wholesaler. and
I told these fellows that they had to
see that the North Dakota merchants
got prices that would permit them to
meet any competition. We arranged
that any bill of the mail order house
that the retailer couldn't meet should
be sent to the jobber who would fill it
and give the retailer a just compen-
sation."
Turning to business methods. Mann
made q plea for a cash business.
Look at the chain stores he said.
They do business for cash. The mail
order house gets the cash before the
article is sent. Take q leaf out of their
book and use the same system. You
merchants always come back with the
question: What are you going to do
out here in bad years. how is the farm
or to be carried through? You say
there isn't any cash in the country.
That is never true and if il were /
wouldn't keep a store in such a country.
at Williston two weeks CO., at a
meeting of merchants from eastern
Montana and western Dakota, five
men. merchants in the heart of the dry
belt. got up and said that the adoption
of the cash system was the best thing
they ever did. One fellow told me that
until be went on the cash basis in his
community. the farmers never MIXED
n COW. the calves ran with them. The
first week in July. that community
marketed more cream in one week than
it had in a year when the farmers could
plav season credits. /,
"Those farmers are better off. +,
They've been taught a little of the
principles of business management. II
firmly believe that the lack of real
business methods is as much at the
root of poor farming. business as is
failure of crops. l believe that the
man who uses business methods on the
out in this country.
II tell you that the cash system
saved 200 merchants in our state"
Condemns Credit System
Mann said that the entire system of
As carried out by the jobbers
was at fault and that the credit men
spent too much time in finding out
much they could recover from the
wreck instead of giving real aid at the
right time. He referred to it as send
ing an undertaken instead of a doctor.
This problem is being met. he said, by
associations of wholesalers and re-
~tailers.
Much of the talk given in the even
ing by Mann was addressed to the
sales forces of the stores. He said
that in time of business depression the
best way to keep good wages and plen-
tiful work was for the salesman or
woman TO do more than merely stand
a counter. but actually to aid
bringing business to the store. He
demonstrated many of his points with
taken from the management of
his own store or his experience in buy
ing in other cities.
A large loss to the stores. he said.
was due to the dishonesty of employees.
He mentioned that a check made on
his own store. made with considerable
reluctance. had resulted in finding four
Jerks who had not turned in money
taken on purchases. OF 1927 in pur-
he said SIT never was account
ed for.
Tate Outlines Work
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