Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1931-07-23

L
away in a cloud of dust The weekly
drama of the pony express is revived.
in a way, in the speed and hustle OF
the skyway service.
There can be no doubt that radio has
worked to the advantage of the small
town business man. Supplying an end
less variety of entertainment for the
home-and for the store as well-it
tends to counteract the lure OF city
amusements. 1t keeps people closer to
their own hearth-stones and to their
home town merchants or neighborhood
shops. And when television comes, IN
full power and perfection-as it surely
will some time-this stay-at-home in
{luence will be enhanced and intensi-
fled immeasurably Small-town bust
ness will inevitably benefit from such
a striking transformation and forward
step as this.
Let us take brief look now at one
of HE Invest and most contentious
questions that bear upon such bust
ness. Namely, Can the chain store
successfully invade the small town..
Certainly a vital problem-this one OF
the survival of the independent who,
as President Hoover has put 1t, is the
foundation of American business.
OF course. cannot begin to answer
such controversial question in the
two or three minutes at my disposal
| Just want to mention few OF the
things that influence the situation. a
chain store in a real small town-not
a suburb, mind you-lacks some OF
the characteristics that help to make
the wheels 90 around in typical chain
store activity. In the nature of things
| it cannot have so much large-scale re-
1 QUESTION, distribution, accounting, and
other city chain-store advantages.
Probably that is why our census iig-
ures show that, in towns OF less than
10000. the chains do less than 10 per
cent of the total business. To increase
that. they are up against one OF the
great assets Of the small-town indie
i pendent, namely, personal relations
and special service.
Take the credit question. The indie
pendent merchant can take advantage
Of the fact that it is probably as safe
to extend "open credit in the Amerl-
can small town as 1t is anywhere on
earth. He runs across very few cases
. like the one in which an exasperated
merchant, desperate over bill long
due. accosted the debtor with these
words Look here. John you've been
owing me this bill for a year. NOW
I'll meet you halfway. I'm ready 70
forget half what you owe. And John
came right back with: Fine! III meet
YOU I'll forget the other half
A pretty weighty factor in determln-
ing the flow of business in small town
is that Of personal friendship. The local
, people 90 to the same churches-be-
long to the same lodges-sWat mos
ouitos at the same picnics The indie
PENDENT small town merchant knows
the typical wants and proclivities, ever
the dispositions Of his townspeople He
would never make such blunder a.
that of the old-rag man who ap-
preached a sharp-visaged housewife
] with the query. ANY bottles, ma'an
J any wine bottles2" Thoroughly out,
: ragged, the woman snapped; DO ! looi
as if drank wine?" The questione
peered at her more closely and has.
tened to exclaim: my mistaken,
mistake, lady Any vinegar bottlesf
The element of personal contact !.
one Of the factors in the situation Wit
respect to the mail order trade. VIVA
is the mail-order situation, taking IT b.
and large? 1t is easiest to express
. by index figures. Let US take the 1873
/ rs average as our basis, or lOO. 70
1919 the index figure for mail-orde
l. sales in the country as whole wa
93. for 1880 it was 172, or little les
8 than double what it had been II year
te before. 1t seems reasonable to assum
is that the business of small-town store
) has been injured to some extent by tn
mail-order expansion though ! I'm
81 no figures available to indicate the es
ne act extent of such encroachment. .,
r nxperts at the Department OF Com
merce saw that, from their experience
Il looks as if the mail-order hous'
i get much larger business from u
Of farmers. in proportion to the nump'
az people, than they do from the actu
residents OF small towns. (Of cours
IS that rural business would otherWl
of come. in major part, to the small-tow
stores.) In the villages, the factor
, convenience, the possibility OF lookli
over the goods and comparing and 8
ne lecting, and again that highly mpor
-, ant element or personal friendship
ca the storekeeper, combine to hold mu'
les trade for the good local merchant
se against the distant establishment SCI
lat ing merchandise by mail
use And SO, although there are unfa
- orable factors against small-toWn bus
e ness. there are, on the other har
!. strong favorable elements which 9
II more modern, more in the spirit OF !.
e. new age" than are the adverse q
ice cumstances. A business friend OF mn
on, Mr.. A. M. Matson Of Dallas, direct
all Of a great wholesaling house operati
py all over the country, writes me:
ads have been convinced-not throu
nal puesswork, but by actual experience
m that there is comeback in the SIN
ON town in Texas. there are many go
reasons for it, but the most outstan
on, ing is more efficient storekeepers.
ir- Small industry and busin'
icn in this country are justified in ente
ies tanning lively hopefulness and stur
al courage.
~ Rare Woods