Newspaper Page Text
THE ATL ANTI AN
The United States Supreme Court
bears the same relation to the national law-making body as do you, the public, to us, the merchant. The legislative body is
the servant of the people. If the deliberations of this body result in enactment contrary to the people’s sense of justice,
as expressed in the Constitution, then the people, through the Supreme Court, stamp such enactment with their disapproval
and declare it void.
We, the merchant, are the servants of you, the public. If the result of our deliberations—i. e., the quality of our
merchandise, the amplitude of our assortments, the correctness of our styles, the moderateness of our prices, the quality
of our service, the manner in which we fill our guarantees—be not in accordance with your ideas of fairness, then
quickly will follow the stamp of your disapproval, and our consequent loss of patronage. In other words, great increase
in profitable, legitimate business incontrovertibly indicates just, liberal, able management.
Comparing the past six months with the corresponding period one year ago, we find that—
Our sales have increased approximately $75,000
Our advertising expense has been decreased 20 r °
Sales for May to date have increased $20,000
Our prices have never heretofore been so low
Our percentage of profit is as great as ever
Sounds paradoxical, does it not, in an age when volumi
nous advertising apparently is thought necessary to suc
cessful business, to say that though our advertising ex
penditure has materially decreased, yet our sales have
shown a wonderful increase? Sounds paradoxical, does
it not, to say that though our prices are lower than ever
before, yet our percentage of profit has not been lessened?
Yet both contradictions are easily explained. In the first
place the self-evident truthfulness of our advertising
easily offsets the use of vast newspaper space which many
stores deem necessary. The fact that, for over thirty
years, the printed or spoken word of the J. M. High Com
pany has been even better than their bond, lends to our
newspaper advertising an efficacy which mere use of
space can never achieve.
In the next place, the fact that we easily assimilate great
quantities of merchandise, the fact that we unhesitatingly
purchase in gross lots where others look upon dozens
with distrust, opens to us trade doors of saving where
others are confronted by bare, blank walls.
Likewise the fact that we pay immediate cash upon all
purchases, nets us still another material discount.
The savings thus effected, and they amount to thousands
of dollars during the year, are credited to your account.
In other words, no matter how much below the market
may be the price at which we buy, only our legitimate'
percentage of profit is marked up. The news of the sav
ings thus made possible, even though announced in limited
newspaper space, produces for us much greater business
than would unlimited space filled with the usual offerings.
One merchant says: “The J. M. High Company has de
moralized the glove market in Atlanta." If by this he
means that we have sold more long kid gloves than any
other house in Atlanta, at less than two-thirds the price
that others have charged for identical goods, and yet made
for ourselves a handsome profit, he is right. If by this he
means that we have sold more long silk gloves than all
other Atlanta houses combined, at a price almost one-third
less than theirs, and yet made greater than our usual
profit, then he is right.
We have done these things. We are doing them daily in
all departments. We shall continue to do 60. It is thus
that we have gained your confidence, it is by just such able
merchandising methods that we have induced you to trans
fer the bulk of your patronage to us. We trust that we
may continue to merit it.