Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1931-07-16
The Business Future of The
Small Town

want my answer right now to these
questions, would say "Yes.'
But let us look first at the other
side-the factors against the small
town. Powerful commercial forces have
swept through and swirled around it.
And unquestionably one of the most
potent Of those forces has been the
modern business tendency toward ever
larger units of organization and oper-
alton in farming
For, instance, one Is amazed to note
the extent of farmers cooperatives'
dealings and their reaction on the
business of small towns In the admir-
able yearbook Of the Department of
Agriculture / find that there are H.
600 farmers cooperative associations in
the United States More than million
farmers belong to them. Their esti-
mated total business amounts to 2l2
billion dollars annually. Most of that,
of course, is in farm products sold.
But what is the extent of their cooper
alive buying? 1t amounts to pretty
nearly 200 million dollars in the course
of every year
Just what has this to do with the
small town." you may ask. Here is
the point: The farm cooperatives large
ly buy these supplies directly from the
manufacturers. The goods come gem
orally in carload lots. The cooperatives
distribute them to their members. In
such transactions as this, the small
town hardware store, feed store, agri-
cultural-implement store, general store,
are permitted to play no part The same
is true of these purchases for most
of the large-scale farms that are being
operated now by individuals or cor
porations. Most of the things they need
they buy direct, from some distant
manufacturing center
Just what is the extent of the tend
ency of small-town folks to buy goods
"out of town?p If we are to draw any
valid conclusions we need exact data :
and fortunately / am in position to
give you precise figures in typical
case. A real business clinic on this
matter was conducted Just recently by
an expert employed by the chamber
of commerce in a small Illinois town
of about 5000 people. And, incident
ally, the facts revealed there coincide
closely with those found in an anal
ysis of the same problem of smalltown
business by our Department of Com
merce staff in New England.
In digging up the facts about out
of-town buying, the investigators did
not generalize or guess; they went to
every house in the place and asked
questions which were answered
frankly And here is what the survey
developed. Only or per cent of the
drugs and groceries were purchased
out OF town; here we see the element
of immediate need operating; people
are apt to want groceries and medi-
cines in hurry, and they buy them
at nearby store. When we come to
hardware and "houseware" we en-
counter sharp rise in the percentage
los for hardware and 1873 for the
miscellaneous utensils. Meats-rather
surprisingly--show a percentage Of
nearly q purchased out of town. More
than quarter of the furniture for the
homes in this small town came from
the nearby cities. There is another
sharp rise when we come to dry goods
the percentage shooting up to near
ly 80 per cent Exactly half Of the shoes
and jewelry were purchased out OF
town. When we come to ready to-wear
clothing, we strike the highest per-
centage of all-nearly S. per cent being
purchased outside the corporate limits
of this village Evidently the higher
the cost of the commodity per unit the
wider the shopping effort.
Five reasons were given that inn
PEELED the people Of this typical small
town to go elsewhere to buy merchan-
disc: The bigger out-of-town stores
were asserted to have better selec-
ton Of merchandise, better prices, more
modern equipment and arrangement
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