Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1918 — LOCAL DEALERS DO BUSINESS IN OPEN [ARTICLE]

LOCAL DEALERS DO BUSINESS IN OPEN

Know They Must Face the Muslo £ if Their Customers Are - Displeased. •IhMEET PATRONS FACE TO FACE Mall Order Men Prefer to Sell at Long Distance Rather Than Deal With People In Their Own Cities. (Copyright.) One'of the stock excuses of the.man who orders goods.from a mail order house is that there are many things that he wants that the local merchants do not carry In stock, and that it is necessary for him to send away from town to get them. This -explanation may be all right on the theory that a poor excuse is better than none, but It fails to pass muster when it is subjected to a little scrutiny. Ask the man who offers this as an excuse for his dealings with the mail order man why he does not go to the local'merchant and ask him to order the articles desired if they are not to be found in the merchant’s stock. The merchant will very gladly do this, and the merchant and customer will both profit. The merchant can sell you whatever you desire at as low a price as the mail order house can make you on goods the same quality and he can make a small profit. The customer will profit from the transaction, because he will be dealing with a merchant who stands back of the goods that he sells, and who is easily accessible In case the articles purchased do not prove to be all that the customer had expected. Give Home Merchant Preference.

Why not try this plan the next time yon need something which yon cannot find In any of your home stores? The merchant in the average sized town cannot carry In stock everything that all of the people In his town may want at all times. It would require a capital many times larger than the average merchant can command to do this, but he does the best he can. He ordiharily does carry in stock at all times many things for which there Is no general demand, In order that he may meet the needs of his customers to the greatest possible degree, but there is a limit to his purchasing ability. He Is always ready and willing, however, to make every effort to meet the demands of the community. Why not, then, give him the preference over the far-distant mail order man If you must have something which Is got to be found in the local stores? He will do the business in 9 satisfactory manner, give yon as quick If not quicker service and more satisfactory treatment, and the chances are that he will give you better values for the money. Finally, whatever profit is to be made off the transaction will stay at home and do its bit toward making the merchant and his town and, Incidentally, yourself, more prosperous. No business can be transacted aa satisfactorily at long range as it can when the two parties to the transaction meet face to face. The only exception to this rule Is In the case of the mall order man himself, who can transact his business with greater success to himself at long distance than he could if he had to meet his customers face to face. That Is the reason that he does business by mall Instead of selling to the people In his own city. If the goods which the mall order man advertises In his alluring catalogues were the bargains that he represents them to be, he would not have to go outside of the confines of his own city to sell all the goods he could possibly obtain. But the average mall order house not only does not make any effort to sell goods In Its own city, bnt will not sell to anyone residing within the city limits. The mall order rpnn does not want to meet his customers face to face. He can do business better so far as he Is concerned If his customer Is some hundreds of miles away from his office.

Does Business in Open. The man who sells goods over the counter, on the other hand, does business In the open. He cannot hide behind a corporate name or talk to a displeased custpmer from behind the locked doors of a private office. He knows that he must face the music In case he Is a party to any transaction that won’t stand the light of day. He knows that he must satisfy every customer with whom he may be dealing or he will lose not only that customer but probably others who will soon know all the facts If he does not do the square thing by any one of his patrons. There Is no reason In the world for any person to send \hls money to a mall order house because he cannot find the article he wants in his local store. The local merchant is to business for the very purpose of getting you what you want. He has the Information that will, enable him to get what you want and to get It as quickly as you could get It from a mall or-t der house. It is only fair to him to give him the chance to make such profit as any dealer would make off the transaction and it Is only fair to yourself to keep that profit at home rather than to send it away to some far distant city from which It will never turn. - •••>