Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-01-05
THE Lure
Of THE MAIL
ORDER HOUSE
How An Alluring Offer Cleaned Up
Inferior Goods

In the spring of 1918, one of the big
mail-order houses found on it's shelves
bolts of materials the designs of which
were not being used by reliable hcme-
town merchants. They hit upon novel
scheme to rid themselves of this old
fashioned stuff and the result was that
the town of Hampden was flooded with
oatalogs bearing the usual artistic crea
lions on paper of the complete line of
the mail-order house in question Bat
the real scheme they had hit upon was
outlined in a separate letter-a letter
calling attention to the fact that they
were offering a special lot of suits,
with an extra skirt, Eat prices much
lower than the suit with it's regulation
one skirt would cost you in Hampden,"
The townspeople were not in the ha-
bit of buying from the mail-order
houses, but this wonderful bargain"
was as startling to the Hampden wo-
men as if a bomb had been exploded
IN the town. In their minds eye they
conjured up visions of long-lived suit
and the saving that would accrue thru
wearing the extra skirt with sheer and
pretty blouses during the summer.
thus saving the original skirt, etc. This
vas an innovation indeed for Hampden
ties and the astonishing news ran from
tongue to tongue until practically
very woman in town was in state of
unrest and eXcitement-and when wo-
men work themselves up to this condi-
ton, buying is the inevitable result.
The dealers in the town were sur
prised when they heard of the offer, as
they had gone to considerable trouble
and expense to stock up, inasmuch as
The manufacturers output was cur
tailed and a suit with one skirt was
very complete piece of work Most of
the fashion notes spoke of narrower
and shorter skirts in order to conserve
material SO these merchants knew be-
fore they saw the suits that the ma
terial was not in good taste and must
surely be or an inferior character.
They knew that two skirts couldn't be
had of any other Kind of goods. They
tried to dissuade the few former Gus
toners who dropped into see if they
could get suits with an extra skirt for
sending in their orders, but the CLAM
our of the offer had by this time taken
on the rosiest of hues, so the merch-
ants, despite their warning had to be
content with about 10 per cent of their
former sales in suits. a
They then figured that extra blouses
would be bought or possibly fancy
skirt, but the mail-order house had its
plan too we'll laid for any such diver
sion of money from their Golfers to
those of the local merchants, where it
rightfully belonged. They sent with
the suit cleverly worded letter with
an illustrated circular of some blouses
laying stress on the saving that the
extra skirt made, and soliciting orders
fer biouses, girdles and collars. Again
the mail-order house scored-the wo-
men seemed hypnotized by this time
The much cheaper" delusion had them
firmly in its grasp.
Now the storekeepers were up a.
gainst it-their problems at all times
were mighty complex, as it is no easy
matter to conduct retail store, and
it requires unusual ability to run such
a store profitably. But when a big
outlay had been made for stock and it
was left on their hands, what could
they do? Unlike the mail-order hous-
es, they could not dump" it on peo-
pie in some far-away towns. They
decided that by fall their customers
would be back, but in this they were
mistaken. The women had the idea
we'll drilled into them by the mail
order houses brand of literature that
mail order house buying was cheaper
| And, as mail order houses only toe
well understand that IS per cent of the
| buying in the country is done by wo-
men and that these rs per cent inf1u-
enee their men folks to buy where they
| 10, they knew that at least 95 per cent
# Hampden's buying would be made
from their house in the future.
| The beginning of 1919 saw Hampder
with three stores less. These dealer.
| Knew that while the mail-order hous,
purchases seemed logical in the eye
of the community jewellers, they wer,
fundamentally wrong and extravagan
las cheap material is costly at an,
, price. But they also knew that j
would take these people at least tw
Years to be disillusioned and the,
J could not hope to cope with the mach
| nations of the mail order houses. Fo
, the time being the shoddy goods sol
lby the mail order houses masquerad