MARTIN SPRINGS A SURPRISE
The next week I went with Charlie Martin and Fred Barlow to Boston to
buy the automobile accessories which we had decided upon when old man
Barlow and I had fixed up that gasoline deal.
He had come to the house one evening and suggested it was time to get
busy.
"Fred knows the automobile business thoroughly--and Charlie is well up
on it also," said Barlow, "so I would suggest that, as I have to put up
the money, if necessary, on what you buy, you let Fred and Charlie go
with you. Their knowledge should be helpful to you."
"That's a good idea," I agreed; "we'll go next Monday."
"I'll tell Fred to be ready to go with you then," Barlow said. He was
silent for a minute, then he went on, "Fred has to buy a lot of
automobile accessories for his people, so perhaps, by pooling his and
your orders, you can get prices shaved a bit."
I looked up with surprise. "I thought Fred had left his Detroit people."
"He has," said Barlow, abruptly, "but he has made new connections
recently."
I wanted to ask what they were, but Barlow's attitude warned me not to.
So, the three of us went to Boston and bought a complete stock of
automobile accessories. I followed Fred Barlow's lead, for he certainly
was familiar with the goods.
The next day the men came to make arrangements for putting in the gas
tank. While they were measuring the pavement, and deciding just where to
fix the pump, Stigler happened along.
"Morning, Stigler," I said, with an attempt at joviality; "how's
business?"
"Fine," he responded. "How's bread mixers going?" He sneered as he
spoke, and I felt myself getting mad.
"So, so," I replied--then, in an attempt to equal up the score, I added,
"Too bad your five-and-ten-cent store proved such a fizzle!"
He turned sharply on me and snarled, "You keep yer damned tongue still
when yer see me. I don't let whelps like you talk 'big' to me and get
away with it, savvy?"
Without another word he walked away, leaving me taut and trembling with
agitation.
I had been given to understand that Stigler's plan of continual price
cutting had cut his profits to the vanishing point. He had brooded over
it so much that it had become a mania with him. Unfortunately, he held
me responsible for his troubles.
I told Betty about it as a good joke on Stigler, but she didn't laugh,
instead she said gravely, "Leave that man alone, my dear; he is
dangerous. Don't pick quarrels with him, or you may come to blows, or
worse. Remember, dearest, that I need you more than ever--now."
How dear she was, and how brave and happy she kept while waiting--I
could not let her have anything to worry about until after.
Charlie Martin had asked if he could come around to the house that
evening, and, of course, I had said, "Yes."
Charlie had grown to be one of us almost, and I hardly realized how much
I had come to depend on him until the thought of losing him occurred to
me.
I don't know how I had happened to get into the habit of looking upon
Charlie as a fixture with me. I knew his people were fairly well to do,
and that the eight dollars a week I paid him were a mere bagatelle
toward his living expenses. One gets into the habit, however, of
accepting things on surface evidence, until one loses sight of the
motive which is at the back of the evidence. For instance, if I had
thought a bit, I would have known Charlie hadn't worked for eight
dollars a week just because he needed a job.
One thing it taught me was that I must not confuse the apparent with the
real. Thereafter, whenever a man said anything to me, I remembered that
there was a motive at the back of what he said, and that if I was going
to understand other people I must understand the motive which impelled
their action. For instance, I knew that, when a man came in to buy a saw
from me, he had a reason for buying that saw. The more I knew of his
reason for buying it, the more able I was to sell him just what he
wanted.
If a man put up a business proposition to me which looked good for me I
remembered that it was not for me that he was doing it. I was not the
reason which impelled him to give me a good deal. It was something
which he eventually was going to get out of it himself. So I said to
myself, "Why does he want to do this for me?" And if I could not find a
good logical reason I left it alone until I could.
"Dawson," said Charlie, after dinner--he had got to calling me Dawson
outside of business--"Do you know why I have been working for you for
the last few months?"
"Why, no, unless you've just wanted to do something."
"I never do anything just because I want to fill in some spare time," he
smiled. "My business training has taught me that I cannot afford to make
a lot of waste motions. I came to your store because I wanted a
small-store experience."
"We're not so small," I protested.
"Well, let's say small compared to Bon Marche in Paris, or Selfridges in
London, or Marshall Field in Chicago, or such young concerns. However, I
think I know more about small-store conduct than I did before, now that
I've had some experience. You see, I studied retail merchandising, but
that was only half the battle, you know. All I learned there was no use
whatever until I found whether I could actually apply it.
"As you know," he continued, "I went to Detroit and studied the
automobile business--not from the manufacturing end, but from the
distribution end--because Fred Barlow and I had a hunch that there was a
big future in automobile selling, if we could discover it."
"I should think there was a big 'present,'" I remarked.
"Yes, there is a big present for the manufacturers, and some few
distributors make a fine thing out of it. But the distribution end
struck us as being very inadequate."
"Fancy you two young fellows deciding that the big bucks up in Detroit
don't know how to sell automobiles!"
"I guess you're right, at that," agreed Charlie; "but the outsider often
gets a different slant on things from the fellow who is continually on
the job. But that's neither here nor there," and he waved his hand as if
to brush aside the discussion. "The point is that Fred and I went to
Detroit together and studied the automobile business from the
distribution end, and, of course, we also learned how they are made. We
then looked into the accessories, and found out quite a lot about
selling them. Then we decided we wanted retail-store experience,
particularly in hardware. So Fred has been studying the practical side
of retail-store management in his dad's office, while I have been
studying it in yours."
"Do you think that's quite fair?" I said indignantly, "for you and Fred
Barlow to use his father and me as suckers?"
"Don't get vexed," he said quietly, "until you know the reason for our
actions." Then he continued, "I don't think you have any cause to
complain at what I've done for you, Dawson. I think I've been worth my
eight dollars a week."
"Of course you have. Forgive me."
"Here's the idea," he resumed. "The hardware stores of the country are
at last waking up to the fact that automobile accessories are logically
a department of the hardware store. We feel, however, that the garage
itself is a logical department of the hardware store. The hardware store
in the past has lost several lines which ought to belong to it. Look at
the number of hardware lines the drug stores sell, and the department
stores also. If the hardware stores had been on the job it would have
been impossible to have bought a bicycle anywhere than at a hardware
store.
"Now, we have to admit that, of late, the hardware repair shop has not
been a flourishing, profitable department. In fact, many hardware stores
have eliminated it, sending outside such odd jobs as must be done. We
believed--in fact, we still believe, that the hardware store of the town
should also be the leading garage of the town, and that the garage is
the natural development of the tin shop. Many hardware stores are
selling gasoline, and, as you know, automobile accessories are becoming
quite common in a hardware store.
"If we had a garage adjacent to our hardware store," he continued, "we
could not only supply a man with accessories, but attach them to his
car. If a man has a breakdown, we are in a position to repair his car,
and then exercise our selling ability to sell him accessories.
"Just look at the average garage! Did you ever know of a garage man who
made a display of accessories? If the present garagemen were on to the
job they could put the hardware man out of business, so far as
accessories are concerned." Here Charlie paused for a minute, and then
added: "Except, perhaps, in the larger cities.
"As you know, my dad has quite a little money, and he is willing to set
me up in business. Fred Barlow's dad has a little money, also."
I smiled at this, because it was known all over town that old man Barlow
was one of our wealthiest citizens.
"Fred and I and our dads," he continued, "have formed a little
corporation under the title of Martin & Barlow. What we plan to do is to
operate a chain of garages in connection with the best hardware store in
each town. We are going to run a garage in Farmdale here, in that place
exactly opposite Barlow's store. We are also going to have a display
window in the garage where accessories will be shown. The hardware store
will also contain a big display of accessories, which will be under our
control. We are going to pay Mr. Barlow a small sum for rent of space in
his store. Fred or I will be in charge of that to begin with.
"We have a man coming from the Michigan Car Company to look after the
garage. We will also have the exclusive agency for this territory for
the Michigan car. That is how it will work out," he continued, after a
moment's pause.
"We shall train one of Barlow's clerks to look after the accessories
department in the store. We shall then have our own man who will go
around selling cars in this locality. We shall also have a man in the
garage who understands repairs of all kinds, and particularly the
Michigan car, for which he shall carry a complete line of parts."
"Will that pay Barlow?" I asked.
"Yes, for in return for his providing a salesman for the accessories
department, we will give him a percentage of the profits from that
department, besides guaranteeing him a small sum for rent every month.
"Now our salesman for the Michigan car will also canvass the car owners
in the locality--representing Barlow's store, you understand,--and
secure their business for accessories. We believe that he will sell
enough cars and accessories to pay for himself and to make money for the
store and us. In addition to this the salesman will take orders for
general hardware whenever the opportunity occurs, and on such business
the store gives us a commission. In other words, you see, our salesman
is really a salesman for everything that Barlow will sell.
"The man we will have in charge of the garage is not only thoroughly
trained in repair work of all kinds by the Michigan Car Company, but he
has also been given a special schooling in simple bookkeeping,
salesmanship, the need of cleanliness, courtesy, and the best way to
keep his garage smart and attractive. He is not only able to repair
cars, but he knows how to _charge_ for his repairs."
"All the garage men I know don't need any training in _that_," I said,
with a grin.
He smiled and went on: "Now, when we have this town working properly we
want to make arrangements with a good hardware man in another town. Fred
Barlow and I will get hold of a local man, train him in the selling of
the Michigan car, and show him how to go about building up accessories
and general hardware trade. We will also teach one of the hardware man's
clerks how to sell accessories; and the Michigan Car Company will then
send us another man with the same training as the first to look after
the garage for us, which will in every case be located as near to the
hardware store as possible. The Michigan Car Company is running a
regular class-room in its factory, so that we will have fifty men,
properly trained, if we need them.
"Of course, we shall have signs up in the garage that automobile
accessories and hardware can be bought from the hardware store, and in
the hardware store there will be signs saying that gasoline and repairs
of all kinds are to be had in our garage, at such an address.
"In each town we will operate our business in the name of the local
store."
"Won't you have a job in checking up your cash? Do you have your
salesman look after that, and bond him?"
"No," he replied. "The local hardware man is responsible for all cash.
We get him to receive all the money collected, render us a weekly
report, and send us a check for the full amount, with a list of any
goods wanted for either the garage or the accessories department."
"Can you get the hardware people to do that?" I asked skeptically.
"We think we can."
"Do you think you can get them to go to all that bother and trouble?"
Charlie smiled and replied: "If they are not willing to go to that
bother and trouble we would not want to work with them, for it would
show they were 'dead ones.' We believe that live hardware people will be
glad to work with us on a proposition such as this, which will be a
source of profit to them, as well as increased sales on their regular
hardware lines."
"What's the local garage man going to say about this?" I asked.
"It will be a survival of the fittest," he said quietly. "We have not
entered into this to put the garage man out of business, but merely to
get a garage business for ourselves. We shall not consider him in any
way, or go out of our way to fight him. We shall merely mind our own
business, and get as much of it to mind as we can."
"When are you going to start here?"
"May 1st," he replied.
"Say," I exclaimed, sitting up straight, "then all those goods Fred and
you bought while with me in Boston are really for your store here?"
"Yes."
"Well, why didn't you or Barlow say something about it?"
"Look here, Dawson, we can trust you to the last gun shot; but, if one
wants to keep a thing quiet the best way is to tell nobody, for if he
starts to tell one, before he knows it he is telling some one else, and
his plans may be frustrated before he has a chance of putting them into
operation."
"Why bother to tell me about it all, then?" And then another distressing
thought occurred to me. "Look here, Charlie, this is going to hurt me.
If you have a man going around selling hardware he is going to upset
Larsen on his weekly trips to get business. Then, what's the good of my
having accessories, if you are fighting me all the time?"
The more I thought about it the more alarming it became.
"I'm going to see old Barlow first thing in the morning." I felt my
temper rising. "I am going to tell him to keep his old gas tank. I won't
have it; and as for those accessories, I'll return them right away.
You're not going to use me as a cat's-paw in your business, and you and
Barlow can go--"
"Oh, shut up!" said Charlie, sharply. "Look here, Dawson, old man Barlow
never did anything to hurt you, and is not going to now. Fred and I
think too much of you. In fact, we want you to help us and yourself at
the same time. This town is big enough for two hardware stores with
accessories. The only man who is going to be pinched here is Martin, who
runs the garage, and as a matter of fact, old Barlow is out for Martin's
scalp."
I then recalled an episode between old man Barlow and Martin, the garage
man, some years ago, when they had a lawsuit over a land boundary.
Martin played some very dirty trick on Barlow, who lost his case. The
only comment Barlow ever made was, "I can wait." It looked to me as if
Barlow was helping to start a new idea in chain store organization, and
at the same time paying off an old score.
"Well, where do I come in on this deal?" I asked, somewhat suspiciously,
I must own.
"Listen, Dawson," said Charlie, putting his hand on my knee, "you're a
mighty original chap. Some of the selling stunts you have pulled off
here show you have an excellent merchandising instinct. You have made
some 'bulls,' of course, but I'd hate to have a fellow around me who
couldn't make some mistakes. When we've got our plan in this town
working properly, we would like you, if we could get you, to thoroughly
study the automobile accessories business, and think up ways and means
of selling them; and then we'd like you, if you would to come in with us
as a partner and take charge of the selling and displaying of the
accessories for all our stores. We would also like to have you write up
form letters to send to car owners, and go around and visit the stores
and see that the goods are being displayed properly. Think up new
selling wrinkles for salesmen, and things of that sort."
Then he got up abruptly, leaving my head in a whirlwind with the torrent
of thoughts he had given me, and said, "Think it over, old man, and talk
about it with Betty, but don't let it go any further!"