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[Illustration: "Betty was a real comfort" (See page 110)]
DAWSON BLACK: RETAIL MERCHANT
By HAROLD WHITEHEAD
_Author of_ "The Business Career of Peter Flint"
ILLUSTRATED By JOHN GOSS
[Illustration: SPE LABOR LEVIS]
THE PAGE COMPANY
BOSTON PUBLISHERS
_Copyright, 1918, by_
THE PAGE COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
First Impression, July, 1918
Second Impression, July, 1918
Third Impression, October, 1919
_I am glad to confess that whatever I do is done
because I want to justify the faith in my ability and
the loving encouragement which has so loyally been
given to me. For this reason, I dedicate this to the
one who has inspired me to do my best--My Wife._
INTRODUCTION
A boy, just graduated from high school, was looking over some of his
father's business books and magazines. The more he read, the more
disappointed he became, until finally he blurted,
"Say, dad, I don't want to be a business man!"
"Why not?" asked his father, with a tolerant smile.
"Aw, there's no fun in business."
"Get that foolish idea out of your head, son. There's nothing I know of
that is quite so much fun--as you call it--as business. Where did you
get your ideas of business?"
"From them books," said son, emphatically, if ungrammatically. "All they
talk about is efficiency, getting results, checking people up, and
things of that kind."
Just ask yourself, Friend Reader, if your business reading has not given
you an idea that business should be more or less a cold-blooded
proposition, and our business life something apart from our home and
social relationships.
Unfortunately, many books, excellent in their presentation of
principles, ignore the human side, as it were, of business. I
believe--nay, I am sure--that the influence of our home life is an
important factor in the development of our business career. Our loves,
our dislikes, our jealousies, our unfortunate, yet often lovable,
unreasonablenesses are reflected in our business life. Our impetuous
business decisions are often made through the subconscious influence of
some dear one at home.
Our ambitions.--Are you, Friend Reader, so cold-blooded that you can say
your ambition is a selfish one? Honestly now, wasn't it that you want to
win something (whatever it may be)? Didn't you want to "make good" just
to please some little woman?
When you faltered and weakened in your struggle for success, wasn't it
she who gave you the necessary loving sympathy and encouragement to keep
everlastingly at it? And wasn't your ambition encouraged a little bit by
the delight you knew its attainment would give to that sweet little
woman, who thinks "her boy" is just all right? Didn't you want to "make
good" so as to please your mother and your father?
I don't care if you are a big, six-foot, bull-necked husky who smokes
black cigars and swears, you have to admit the truth of this assertion
so far as you are concerned.
Sounds like moralizing, doesn't it? And yet it's God's own truth!
It was convictions such as these which caused me to write "Dawson
Black." I wanted to give the world a book which would not be a learned
and technical treatise on retail merchandising, but would give a picture
of business life as it really is--not as the world mis-sees it.
I have tried to make "Dawson Black" a human being, not an automaton to
go through a series of jerky motions to illustrate principles. I wanted
him to do some things wrong and suffer for it, and some things right,
and perhaps still suffer a little; but I wanted to make his business
life _REAL_. I wanted the reader to say to himself, "By Jove! I did just
that same fool thing myself!"
And, underneath all this, I wanted to present a few of the principles of
retail merchandising. I wanted to show that the result of the correct
application of principle was sure, and that a principle of retail
merchandising is applicable to every kind of retail store--be it the
little corner Italian fruit stand, or be it the largest department store
in the country; be it hardware, drygoods, drugs, shoes, plumbing, or
what not.
This book will have answered its purpose if it encourages you to
persevere by showing that the majority of people make the same mistakes
that you do,--and inspires you with the nobility of business, and in
particular convinces you that you are not working for money, but for the
happiness you can give somebody else in addition to yourself.
HAROLD WHITEHEAD.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION vii
I AN UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE 1
II READY TO GO AHEAD 6
III MY FIRST DAY 10
IV IN TROUBLE 15
V BETTY MAKES A PROMISE 21
VI UNTYING SOME TANGLES 23
VII GETTING DOWN TO WORK 30
VIII A WEDDING AND A CONVENTION 37
IX A GOOD PLAN BLOCKED 46
X CURBING CREDIT CUSTOMERS 52
XI MORE FINANCIAL WORRIES 59
XII AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR 65
XIII A NEW KIND OF LOTTERY 73
XIV SOME IDEAS IN BUYING 80
XV HOW TO STOP SWEARING 89
XVI A PROPER USE FOR EYES 95
XVII PLANNING TO REDUCE STOCK 100
XVIII THE GREAT SALE 109
XIX A TRIP TO BOSTON 122
XX A SUCCESSFUL MONDAY MEETING 127
XXI A POOR SALESMAN 136
XXII STIGLER PREPARES ANOTHER BLOW 146
XXIII TRADING STAMPS 153
XXIV PREPARING FOR THE BATTLE 167
XXV SELLING ELECTRIC APPLIANCES 176
XXVI FIRE--AND NO INSURANCE 183
XXVII PROFIT-SHARING PLANS 189
XXVIII GETTING NEW BUSINESS 200
XXIX STIGLER RUNS AMUCK 212
XXX NEW TROUBLES 217
XXXI A NEW COMPETITOR 222
XXXII SOME IDEAS ON WINDOW TRIMMING 235
XXXIII A BUSINESS PROPOSITION 246
XXXIV DOMINATING IN SERVICE 254
XXXV A NEW THOUGHT ON RETAIL SELLING 263
XXXVI BETTY COMES HOME 279
XXXVII WOOLTON COMES TO TOWN 285
XXXVIII A LOGICAL PROFIT-SHARING PLAN 298
XXXIX A BOOMERANG IDEA 308
XL RULES FOR GIVING SERVICE 315
XLI ENDORSING A NOTE FOR A FRIEND 321
XLII JOCK MCTAVISH DISTURBS THE PEACE 329
XLIII MARTIN SPRINGS A SURPRISE 337
XLIV A BUDGET OF SURPRISES 349
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"BETTY WAS A REAL COMFORT" (_See page 110_) _Frontispiece_
"I WAS SO RAGING MAD THAT I WAS PREPARED FOR ALMOST ANYTHING" 120
"THE GIRL IN CHARGE WOULD LOOK UP SWEETLY" 179
"I WAS STANDING OUTSIDE THE WINDOW" 236
"SNIPPED THREE SHORT PIECES OF WIRE FROM THE COIL" 277
DAWSON BLACK
RETAIL MERCHANT
CHAPTER I
AN UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE
I hadn't seen Aunt Emma for five years, and, candidly, I had never
thought a great deal of her; so you can imagine how surprised I was when
a long-whiskered chap blew in at the Mater's to-day and told me that
Aunt Emma had died, and--had left me eight thousand dollars in cash and
a farm in the Berkshires!
Of course my first thought was to hunt up Betty and get her to help me
celebrate!
We had a bully good time! Betty was delighted with my good fortune; but
scolded me for not being sorry aunty had died. I suppose I should have
pretended I was sorry, although, having met her only twice in my life,
she was practically a stranger to me.
I told Betty I thought I'd throw up my job with Barlow--he runs the Main
Street Hardware Store--and get a store of my own.
We had quite a talk over it. Betty approved of it and said she was sure
I would succeed. She reminded me, though, that I was only twenty-two,
and said that if I did buy a store I should get some one to advise me
about it. She's a fine girl, Betty, but of course she knew nothing about
business.
The next morning I put an advertisement in the county paper. Fellows, a
chap I know who works at the Flaxon Advertising Company--he's some
relation to Betty--said I ought to have used a trade paper, but I told
him I didn't want to go far from home, and a trade paper would probably
bring me answers from Oshkosh and Kankakee and such funny places, and I
would simply be paying out good money to get offers from places I didn't
want to go to. Not that I wouldn't like to travel, but Betty would . . .
well, never mind what Betty would or wouldn't.--There goes the telephone
bell. . . .
Isn't it funny! I had just got back from seeing Fellows when I had a
telephone call from Jim Simpson. Jim was a young fellow, only a little
older than I, who ran a hardware store right here in Farmdale. I used to
go to school with him. He called it a hardware store, but his business
was confined to kitchen furnishings and household hardware. It seemed he
wanted to go out West and offered to sell me his store cheap.
Fancy! Jim Simpson, right here in our town, wanting to sell out, and me
wanting to buy a store, and neither of us knowing it! I telephoned to
Betty to tell her about it, and she said to be careful, because she
didn't like him. Aren't women funny, with their likes and dislikes,
without knowing why! Jim was a pretty smart fellow, and while the store
wasn't just exactly what I had in mind, he did a fairly good business. I
made an appointment with Jim to see him the next day.
Well I guess a streak of lightning has nothing on me! Before night I was
the owner of the Black Hardware Store, for I had bought Jim out and was
to take possession the following Monday! I had seen Jim's books and I
knew everything was all right. Jim was a good fellow, and he promised to
give me all the help and advice that I wanted. He said he'd like to stay
in town with me for a few weeks, only he was anxious to go out West
right away.
The store had $9460.00 worth of goods, reckoned at cost. Jim agreed to
let me have all his fixtures and show-cases, which he said had cost him
over a thousand dollars, and good-will, for $540.00, making the cost of
the store to me $10,000.00.
When Jim told me the cost would be $10,000.00 I was considerably
disappointed, for I had only $8000.00 besides the farm. I told Jim the
farm was worth, I thought, about $8500.00, but I couldn't sell that
right away and, of course, I couldn't pay out all my ready cash, because
I wouldn't have anything left for operating expenses.
Jim was pretty decent about it, and said:
"You give me $7000.00 in cash and a mortgage on the farm and I'll give
you a year to pay the balance. With the big profit you can make in this
store, you'll be able to pay that $3000.00 in no time at all. Besides,
if you couldn't quite manage it in a year, I'd renew it, of course."
But I thought I ought to have more than $1000.00 left, and finally it
was agreed that I should give him $6500.00 in cash and a mortgage on the
farm for $3500.00
I had my $8000.00 deposited in the Farmdale Trust Company, so we went
over there and I gave him a check for the $6500.00. I thought I ought to
do well with $1500.00 besides that splendid store of goods.
Jim had started out to be a lawyer and had studied law for a while, and
he said he would draw up the mortgage himself so there wouldn't be any
delay about it. I brought him over some legal-looking papers I had from
Aunt Emma's estate--deeds, he called them--and we fixed that up without
any trouble.
I asked Jim if we ought not to take stock together, and he said, "Sure,
if you want to;" but I found that he had an exact stock-keeping system,
and Jim suggested that we pick out about a dozen items and just check
those up--"for," said he, "what's the use of checking up fifty cents'
worth of this and thirty cents' worth of that? Your time is too valuable
for that."
I agreed with him, for I couldn't afford to waste my time now that I was
the owner of a store.
Betty asked me that night if I had had a lawyer to go over the thing
with me, but I laughed at her and said, "I don't want a lawyer for a
little deal like this between Jim and me." I told her it would have been
almost an insult to have suggested that I wanted a lawyer. She shook her
head sadly and said something about a man who was his own lawyer having
a fool for a client--which I thought was not at all called for!
Before going to bed, I figured out what the store should be worth to me.
Jim had told me he turned over his stock about three times a year, and
that he made about 10 per cent. clear profit. Three times $9460.00 would
be $28,380.00; and if he made 10 per cent., clear profit, that would be
$2838.00 a year--call it $3000.00 a year. That was $60.00 a week!
Gee!--some jump from what I was getting at Barlow's! I thought how easy
it was to make money when you had some to start with! Here I had been
working my head off for a year and a half and getting only $10.00 a
week, and now I would be making $60.00. I decided to ask Betty to--oh,
well, I'd wait a month or two until I saw if it worked out just like
that. Better be on the safe side!