I fell in with a jolly crowd of commercial men, some salesmen and some
heads of houses, at the Tremont, and I have rarely enjoyed an evening
more. Of course there were any number of stories told, many jokes
cracked, and a deal of chaffing of each other. But if I could have
written down all the points made about business they would have
been eagerly read by my present audience. One man was cursing the
book-keeper, as is usual, when a merchant said:
“There are always two sides to every question, and there is a good deal
to be said from the book-keeper's stand-point. Other things being equal,
a man who has had office experience makes the best man on the road. Very
much of the trouble caused by the book-keeper's letters might be avoided
if the traveling man knew enough, or had a little forethought. You
say things to your customers ten times worse than the book-keeper ever
writes, but a letter looks much more severe than the words you said
sounded to the ear. One salesman when collecting will take pains to get
certain bills balanced. If the customer offers to pay $50 on account
and there is a bill of $53.36 due, or two bills of that sum, he suggests
that it would be a good thing to make the payment that amount and wipe
these out. Such a man helps the office at home. Another man takes the
$50, and does not care a cent if anything is balanced or not. It may
be necessary to have a scapegoat in every concern, but the traveler who
runs down his office for doing its duty is not smart, and is sowing seed
that will grow up to bother him in the near future.”
“Yes,” said another merchant, “and there's a sight more book-keeping
than there is any need of. Every little item has to be charged, bill
sent, statement sent, and then receipted for when paid. If a jobber
wants an ax of a special size, just one, and has to order it from the
factory, although he knows the exact cost, it never enters his head to
send in cash with the order. He must have as much red-tape over it as
if the order was a thousand dozen axes. So the retailer; if a customer
wants a gross of screws sent on at once by express, the charge of 22
cents has to go through all the departments. There's too much of it.
It's expensive in time, and foolish.”
“Don't talk of paying in advance,” said a salesman, “we're mighty glad
to get the money after it's due.”
“Yes, I know; there's too much work there, too. Although the buyer knows
the exact time that his bill is due, he is getting so of late that he
will pay nothing until a statement is sent, and not then till it pleases
him. Your small man, not in the amount of business, but small-minded,
dearly loves to hold back until you have sent him notice of draft made
on him; he at once sends on a remittance then and his little soul takes
comfort in telling, when the draft on him is presented, 'I do not owe
them anything; their bill is paid.' Or else he waits till the draft
is presented and dishonors it because it is drawn 'with exchange.' But
there ought to be a keener sense of the honor to be won in paying bills
promptly. If Dun and Bradstreet were to put in a third rating to show
whether dealers paid promptly or not, and whether mean in little things
or not, it would be of vast help.”
“How would you have it?”
“Why, as it now is, we are told that John Smith is worth $2,000 to
$5,000, and his credit good. I would add another column, and show prompt
pay, slow pay, unpleasant in collecting, etc. You now trust a man on the
basis of his capital and credit, but if you knew he was a smart Aleck
you would not care to sell him no matter how much he was worth.”
“Well, boys,” said a New York man, “I don't have anything to do with
the collecting, and I'm mighty glad of it. It's bad enough to sell goods
without having to squeeze the pay out too. But I had a case the other
day that surprised me a little. Last October I sold a bill to a
concern in Canton, Ohio, on 60 days. When I started out this spring the
book-keeper told me the bill was still unpaid. He said he sent statement
in January, then drew through the Canton bank in February, but draft
was returned unpaid. I told him the concern was good, and I didn't
understand it. I was in Canton in April and intended to speak to the
concern about our bill; but when I went into the store one of them met
me very cordially, said our goods had gone well and he wanted some more.
I took it for granted they had paid up, or they would not be so ready
with another order, so sold them a bill and said nothing about the old
one. But here is a letter from my house asking if anything was done
about the October bill, and telling me it has not yet been remitted
to them. Blest if I understand it! The longer I travel the more I get
puzzled.”
“Well, quit cutlery and go selling coffee.”
“Coffee?”
“Yes, coffee. There are three things that must be selling well in these
days: soap, tobacco, and coffee. Just look at the advertising pages of
the papers and magazines. You see nothing but these three things and
patent medicines. But then you expect patent medicines, so they don't
count. Soap! Great Caesar! It's in everything. 'Queen Soap, 'Sulphur
Soap, 'Ivory Soap', 'Pears' Soap,' and all the other soaps. The
advertising is by all odds the largest expense, and the poor devil of a
retailer is expected to sell at about 5 per cent. margin. Then see
the whole country painted red on tobacco. And now we're catching it on
coffee. If Arbuckle isn't a nephew of Barnum's he ought to be, for he
knows how to advertise. I long ago gave up eating bread made from baking
powder, because each manufacturer proved the other fellow's goods
were poisonous, and I don't know but I must give up coffee since the
advertisements expose how easy it is to doctor it. But at present I'm
sort of holding on to Arbuckle's, and when my confidence in that goes
then I'm done for.”
“You are right,” said a grocer. “Arbuckle has made an immense business
in coffee, and made it by his brains. It's encouraging to see a concern
get out of the rut and show folks that the end of everything hasn't been
reached yet.”
“Seems to me,” said a manufacturer, “that you grocers have done more to
demoralize business, by your gift enterprises, than any other class has
done. Is the thing holding its own?”
“No, there is a decided feeling growing against it. The large wholesale
grocers of New York, Austin, Nichols & Co., say, in a recently published
letter:
“'We do not believe in “gift schemes” of any sort, and are not in the
“give away” business. When the time arrives (if it ever does) when we
are unable to sell good goods on their respective merits we will quietly
retire from business.'”
“And a Ypsilanti, Mich., grocer writes: 'One fellow carries a shotgun
around with him, another a saw, but they principally run to clocks. Of
course you don't have to pay anything for these fine articles, provided
you buy the goods which call for them (in your mind). The retailers,
too, now are striving their very best to see which can give the most
with a pound of baking powder. That is, a great many retailers are. They
do not seem to care anything about the quality, if they can only give
the largest prize. Quality is not considered at all. They buy the thing
for the great prize offered. When the retail merchants of this country
shut down on this despicable way of doing business and sell goods on
their merits, without a prize package attached, just so soon will a blow
have been struck at the root of the whole matter.' These pretty fairly
represent the growing sentiment among large and small traders of brains.
They see that the moment an article ceases to be sold on its merit, just
that moment a dealer is losing his hold on trade. I met a man from Ohio
on the cars a day or two ago. He had been sent out to Iowa by his house
to sell coffee and spices on the prize-package basis. He said he was
almost turned out of doors by the Iowa merchants as soon as he had told
his story. The dealers there said they wanted no goods that had to be
worked off in that way, and had no confidence in goods that could not
sell themselves. Now that was a healthy sign.”
“When I see it,” said another grocer, “I at once assume that the concern
is sending out cheap goods, or that it has been losing trade and catches
at this straw to save itself. When an old and reliable house like
Lorillard goes into the give-a-prize-away-with-every-package business,
it only goes to show to what an extent this matter is carried on. The
Lorillards are now introducing a tobacco called 'Splendid.' They say it
is a 'splendid' thing, makes one feel 'splendid,' etc. If it is, why not
sell it on its merits; advertise it in a legitimate way; make the price
an inducement, and if it is a splendid article the public will soon
find it out. Lately they have been offering a pack of cards with every
10-cent piece, besides giving a first-class cutter to the retailer with
a single box, and a combination truck and ladder with five boxes.”
“It is really one sign of the hard times. When business recovers itself,
and that time is not so far distant, consumers will not be attracted by
the cheap gifts. Every day they are being educated to understand that
they pay for all their 'gifts,' and pay well, too.”
“In times like these you can't blame men for jumping at everything.
Every buyer wants 'a leetle adwantage,' and, like a Chicago man that the
boys tell of, tells you your price is 'stereotyped' unless you cut down
below every one else. So dealers try low prices and try gifts, but
by and by they will have to sell on a rising market, and things will
change.”
“You think prices will go up?”
“They must go up, and it is right that they should. There is no reason
why the girl at work at a loom should starve just that your wife should
save a cent or two a yard on her gingham dress. Wages must go up, and
goods advance too.”
“But if wages advance and the cost of living advances too, where is the
girl to be benefited?”
“Don't fool yourself on that stuff; that is the stale argument of some
of the smart young men who write for posterity. Rent is probably as high
to-day as it was when wages were twice as high. The prices of flour,
pork, and beef are regulated by the crop, not by the buyers' wages. If
I were hammering at an anvil I would take my increased wages and pay
increased prices if I had to, and feel pretty sure I was going to be
benefited. There are some theories, like this one and free-trade, that
sound very plausible, but do not stand any chance when actual tests are
made in every day life. The cry of all merchants to-day should be, 'Pay
decent wages to your help and add it to your goods.' And any factory
that held out ought to be boycotted. I know it's a mean word, but it is
a good one for use with mean men.”