Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1925-09-19
$4,000, 900 Business in
a Town of 5000.

count of The Methods Behinc
a 100000 Business in ;
Town of 5000" 1t is the story
of the Hand Trading Company
of Pelham, a few miles south o.
Albany. written by the president
of the company, T. P. Human.
The most vitality interesting
paragraph in the story to us i:
this statement:
Probably no country town in
the United States is more free
from mail-order competition and
out-of-town buying than is ours.
Neither item is of sufficient inn
portance to get much attention
from our store executives. Folks
can do just as well, buying fus,
as they can anywhere else. What's
more, they have come to realize
it-not because we have told
them, but because the public at
large is very shrewd in recognize
ing values.
Probably the following state
ments explain how it has been
possible for this Big Business in a
Small Town to beat the mail or
der houses
"Credit is not too easy to get
with us. The applicant fills in an
application that is more forn.id-
able than the blank which our
bank uses in passing it's credits.
eve keep larger stocks rather
than minimum stocks. Our atten-
ton is on the problem of having
what our customers want when
they want it.
Shopping at our store is
pleasant experience.
''Folks in a smaller community
like the friendliness and infor-
mality. Every one knows the
store pepole, and all of our 81
store people know all of the Gus
toners. Most of the business Is
transacted by the use of first
names from both sides of the
counter Friendl'ness is never
lost sight of--in large measure
because it is natural to the kind
of people we employ, and in even
larger measure probably because
our people know that we want
them to be friendly.
1--WE are not content, either,
to let this friendliness be mani
tested only in the store. We keep
three men travelling around in
our trade territory, stopping off
to see practically every farmer.
These men might be called our
business missionaries.
eve charge the same price for
cash or credit. However, on all
our farm accounts we put a 10
per cent carrying charge on all
amounts not paid by specified
date in midsummer. We do not
want credit business if we can
handle it for cash."
In explaining how they handle
their credit business at the lowest
possible bookkeeping cost, the
article thus explains how the
Hand Trading company uses
non-transferable coupon books:
We allow farmer $40 month
ly credit for each pillow he uses,
and pillow is required for about
25 to 80 acres. Fertilizer, of
course, he can buy as he needs it
above his regular line of mer-
camille credit.
One of the drawbacks of credit
business which appeals to every
thoughtful merchant is the way it
increases his cost of doing bust
ness. There is so much cost in
bookkeeping, sending out state
ments, collecting from the slow
pays, and so forth, that it adds
several per cent to the overhead.
One way by which we avoid
good deal of this bookkeeping
cost is by issuing coupon books.
If man has a three-plow farm,
and has $50 a month credit with,
US, he comes in on the first of
the month and receives coupon
books containing coupons up to
$50. The books, in different de-
nominations, are just about like
the ice-tieked books which are
standard in cities.
Our avowed purpose is to buy
everything the farmer has to sell,
and to sell him everything he has
to buy. In our community we
come fairly close to meeting this
ideal.
Our 1924 retail business total
ed $505,O00 in general merchan-
disc. This does not include any
of the items which are not gem
orally included in a department