Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-01-29
CATALOC HOUSES HAVE LOWERED
THE STANDARD OF LIVING

From President Hoover and other men
who have studied %intently the needs of the
United States of America comes this plea:
We must maintain our high standard
of living. We cannot go back to the days
Of low wages, low priced merchandise, and
low prices for agricultural products. Our
superiority in world m today is due
to the fact that our standard of living is so
much higher than foreign countries" That
is the cry and the plea of thinking men.
What are the great catalog retail stores
doing to maintain the high standard of living
necessary to make for prosperity in this
great country of ours? They've responded
to the plea for a higher standard of living
by: paying the majority of their employees
barely a living wage; they We responded by
beating down the manufacturer on his pric-
es so that he in turn has had to beat down
wages and manufacture inferior merchan-
disc. They'v We responded by ~cheapening the
quality of merchandise consumed in the I'm
tied States; thy We responded by beating
down the price of farm produce; they We re-
sponded by eluding their just share of tax
alton, by using catalogs sent from central
distributing points to act as store mediums.
The mail order store system in the I'm
tied States have lone everything they can to
lower the standard Of living under the plea
that they are the ultra means Of scientific
distribution.
Let's discuss the mail order store prob
lem as businessman to businessman.
The local merchants have the following
grievances against the catalog retail store
or mail order store system.
First: They have lowered the stand
ads of living by introducing, maintaining
and insisting on cheap lines of merchandise
-. which they in turn sell at a great profit.
This makes almost impossible the sale OF
quality merchandise.
Second: The buyers for c~atalog houses, US
ing their buying power as a big stick, have
repeatedly beaten down the prices of pro-
Queer and manufacturer until today all
profit eliminated from business, forcing
the producer to put inferior quality mer-
chndise on the market.
Third: Catalog houses have maintained the
lowest scale of wages possible, thereby
reducing the buying power of labor and
encouraging a lower standard OF living.
Fourth: Through hysteria, descriptive adj
v~ertising and the use of loss leaders on ma
tional advertising products have forced a
good many local merchants in America
out of business, swelling the tide of I'M
employment by discharging their help
when times were bad and thereby lower
ing the standard Of living.
These conditions exist today and cannot
be denied. The catalog houses increased their
popularity a hundred fold Immediately after
the world war when prices of commodities
were on the decline. Most local merchants
through out this country were heavily stock
ed with the best quality merchandise for
which they were charging a price which
though high, gave them only a very small
profit. Came the flood of new ~catalogs
with a much lower standard of merchandise
at a greatly lower price and gave the consul
mer the impression that they were selling
the same merchandise as the local merchants
at a much lower price. Before the local deal
ers could get rid of his high quality merchan-
disc and stock cheaper lines the damage was
lone and the great propaganda that the cat
alog houses is the ultimate in distribution
OF merchandise became firmly established in
the minds OF many of the buying public.
This condition is again transporting, al
though our merchants have done all in their
power to reduce their stocks during the de-
preston period and are now stocking up
with quality merchandise at the present
lower prices.
Compare any article of merchandise
now with the same article ten years ago and
you cannot help but be astounded by the
difference in quality. The quality simply
ISM as good as it used to be. How could it
be with catalog retail mail order houses
thinking only of price-labor and materials
cost remaining the same. The mannfactur=